Serhiy Ratushniak

Ratushniak was born in Uzhhorod, Ukrainian SSR.^[1] He entered politics in 1994 after creating RIO, a syndicate of enterprises engaged in beverage sales, the production of cured meats and taxi service. Ratushniak was charged in 2000 with embezzlement, but released after the charges were dropped.^[5]

Ratushniak was elected Mayor of Uzhhorod in the 1994 mayoral elections with 70% of the vote.^[6] In 1998 he registered as a candidate for the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, but his registration was revoked shortly before the election.^[6] In the 1998 Uzhhorod mayoral elections he was reelected with 77% of the vote.^[6] Ratushniak was a member of the Zakarpattia Oblast Council from July 2000 to April 2002.^[6] In the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election he was elected to parliament in constituency 70 as a self-nominated candidate, and was simultaneously reelected as mayor, but chose to be a People's Deputy of Ukraine.^[6] In parliament he joined various factions, such as "Democracy", "Democratic Initiatives", For United Ukraine, Our Ukraine, and Regions of Ukraine, until in 2005 he settled on the People's Party.^[6] In the 2006 mayoral elections he was reelected Mayor of Uzhhorod as a candidate of this party.^[6] He headed the Zakarpattia Oblast regional People's Party organisation until September 2009.^[6]

In the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election Ratushniak was a self-nominated candidate.^[3] In August 2009, Ratushniak was alleged to have beaten a female campaigner of fellow presidential candidate Arseniy Yatseniuk (Front of Change).^[7] A criminal case was soon opened against Ratushniak, accusing him of hooliganism, abuse of office and the violation of racial and national equality of citizens;^[8] Ratushniak denied the claims.^[9] Following his nomination, Ratushniak told a local paper that the Jews were to blame for all his country's troubles.^[9] Ratushniak also called Yatsenyuk, who is not Jewish, "a nasty Jew mason"^[5] and an "impudent little Jew" who was "successfully serving the thieves who are in power in Ukraine and is using criminal money to plough ahead towards Ukraine's presidency".^[9] The mayor told the Associated Press in a telephone interview: "Is everybody obliged to love Jews and Israel? If I don't like Jews and Israel, does that make me an anti-Semite?".^[9] Ratushniak had not previously been known to be antisemitic.^[9]

In late December 2009, Ratushniak called on President Viktor Yushchenko to declare war on Somalia, referring to the hostage-taking of Ukrainian sailors by Somali pirates.^[10] Ratushniak also stated that Americans should atone for killing native Americans before meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs.^[10] His election platform included taxing the rich, developing nuclear arms, and obliging all Ukrainians to learn another foreign language, apart from Russian.^[11] After the first round of the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election where Ratushniak gained only 0.12% of the votes,^[4] he called upon his voters to support Yulia Tymoshenko against Viktor Yanukovych in the second round: "She will be accepted by the international community and European governments, while every second of those will shut the door in front of Yanukovych."^[12]

In the 2010 mayoral elections, Ratushniak ended in second place.^[2]

Ratushniak tried to return to national politics in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. He contested single-member district number 68 located in Uzhhorod as an independent candidate; the seat was decided through first-past-the-post voting. However, he came second in this district with 19.51% of the votes.^[13]

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Ratushniak stood again as an independent candidate in the same single-member district as in 2012, but this time he placed fifth with 7.71% of the votes (winner Robert Horvat of Petro Poroshenko Bloc got 21.58%).^[14]

In the 2015 Uzhhorod mayoral elections Ratushniak failed to win as an independent candidate.^[15][16] Bohdan Andriyiv (of Revival) won the elections with 58.57% of the votes, while Ratushniak received 30.9% of the votes.^[15]

Ratushniak did not take part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election.^[17] He had intended to run again in constituency 68, but his candidature was not approved by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine "due to an unjustified long stay outside Ukraine."^[6]

Ratushniak was again a candidate in the 2020 Uzhhorod mayoral elections.^[6] He finished third with 18% of the votes.^[18]