President of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014
Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (Ukrainian: Ві́ктор Фе́дорович Януко́вич, Russian: Виктор Фёдорович Янукович; born 9 July 1950) is a Ukrainian politician who served as the fourth President of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. From 2006 to 2007 he was the prime minister of Ukraine; he also served in this post from November 2002 to January 2005, with a short interruption in December 2004. After rejecting the Ukrainian-European Association Agreement, Yanukovych was ousted from office in the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. He currently lives in exile in Russia. On 18 June 2015, Yanukovych was officially deprived of the title of President of Ukraine by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. On 24 January 2019, he was sentenced in absentia to thirteen years' imprisonment for high treason by a Ukrainian court, which was affirmed on appeals that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Ukraine. Yanukovych was known for his numerous gaffes, which often relate to his poor knowledge of Ukrainian, malapropisms, Freudian slips, geography mistakes, or general errors of speech. Earlier speeches could sometimes include aggressive rhetoric, while some examples (not shown due to their intranslateability) have sparked controversy due to the employment of criminal jargon.
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You know, Odessa is a genuine paradise for talents. Dozens of famous, popular and simply wondeful people were able to develop their talents in the city by the blue-blue sea. I would want to say a few words about them right now - for example, Anna Akhmetova, a poet... <small>Yanukovych meant Anna Akhmatova; Rinat Akhmetov is an oligarch who was then a member of Yanukovych's party</small>
<small>(During the opening of the Ukrainian Olympic house for Ukrainian athletes in London)</small>It is wonderful that this event, it happens just before the thirteenth Olympic Games in London. <small>The 2012 Olympic Games were 30th; the 13th Summer Olympics, also scheduled in London, never happened due to World War II.</small>
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I would like to say that I am alive, although I cannot say that I feel very well, because I feel a deep and profound concern over what is happening in Ukraine now. Disguised behind a veneer of an allegedly legitimate government, there is a gang of ultranationalists and fascists now acting in Ukraine involving people who are now aspiring to presidential office.
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I would like to remind you that I am not only the -- not only the legitimate president of Ukraine, but I’m also the chief of staff, the commander of the army.
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The United States and a number of other countries have been stressing that I have allegedly lost my legitimacy because I fled the country. Let me say again: I never fled anywhere.
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I would like you to warn that the economic situation in Ukraine is going to degenerate, and those who usurp the power are going to shift the blame for this economic crisis on my shoulders, and perhaps even on Russia. ..
And I would like to say: Glory to Ukraine, and I hope everything will be fine in my country.
I would like to tell all residents of Yalta that I know and remember that today we are celebrating 150 years of the literary works of Chekhov - a Ukrainian, (looks up in his notes) Russian writer. And, it would be more accurate to say - 150 years of this figure in world culture. I will absolutely sign an order to renovate the museum of Chekhov in 2010, so that we needn't be ashamed of it, so that when the residents of Ukraine and of other countries come to Yalta, come to Crimea, they could see the landmarks and the biography and the history of that beautiful poet. The famous poet Anton Chekhov. We'll do that.