Party of Regions

The Party of Regions ({{lang-ua| ?????? ????????}}, Partiya rehioniv) is a Ukrainian political party created in March 2001. It originally supported president Leonid Kuchma and joined the pro-government United Ukraine alliance during the 2002 parliamentary election. The party's leader is former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Its electoral and financial base is located primarily in the east and south-east of Ukraine, where it enjoys wide popular support. In the Eastern Ukrainian Donetsk Oblast the party claims to have over 700,000 members.

Related Topics:
Ukrainian - March - 2001 - Leonid Kuchma - United Ukraine - Parliament - Election - Prime Minister - Viktor Yanukovych - Donetsk Oblast

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The Party of Regions is represented in the Ukrainian parliament by the "Regions of Ukraine" faction, which currently has 51 seats.

Related Topics:
Ukrainian parliament - Faction

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The party shifted its political ideology to the left and became much more populist in nature before the Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 and, as a result, Yanukovych won over a large part of the Communist party's electorate in eastern Ukraine. The party announced support for making Russian a second official language in Ukraine, a pro-Russian foreign policy, and increased social spending. It also advocates the regionalist ideology, and many members support making Ukraine a de-centralized federation.

Related Topics:
Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 - Communist party's - Russian - Official language - Federation

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The Party of Regions moved to opposition after its candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, lost the 2004 presidential election. The party leader first claimed an electoral victory but strong allegations of electoral fraud triggered a series of events commonly known as the Orange Revolution. In the re-run of the presidential election ordered by the country's Supreme Court, Viktor Yanukovych lost the election to Viktor Yushchenko.

Related Topics:
Electoral fraud - Orange Revolution - Supreme Court - Viktor Yushchenko

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Currently the Party of Regions is the most vocal opposition party, and claims to be a victim of a political persecution campaign organized by the new government. Borys Kolesnykov, the head of the regional party branch and the Donetsk regional council, was arrested in April 2005 and charged with criminal extortion. The Party of Regions claims this is an act of political repression, while the authorities argue that Kolesnykov had links to organized crime and his arrest is a purely criminal matter.

Related Topics:
Borys Kolesnykov - Organized crime

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