Viktor Tikhonov (politician)
Ukrainian politician (1949–2020)
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Viktor Mykolayovych Tikhonov, also spelled Viktor Tykhonov (Ukrainian: Віктор Миколайович Тихонов; 5 March 1949 – 29 August 2020) was a Ukrainian politician.
Viktor Tykhonov | |
|---|---|
Віктор Тихонов | |
| |
| Ambassador to Belarus | |
| In office 1 June 2011 – 26 November 2012 | |
| Preceded by | Roman Bezsmertnyi |
| Succeeded by | Mykhailo Yezhel |
| Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine | |
| In office 11 March 2010 – 1 June 2011 | |
| Prime Minister | Mykola Azarov |
| Chairman of the Luhansk Oblast Council | |
| In office 24 April 1998 – April 2006 | |
| Preceded by | Leonid Dayneko |
| Succeeded by | Valeriy Holenko |
| Deputy Governor of Luhansk Oblast | |
| In office November 1995 – April 1998 | |
| Governor | Hennadiy Fomenko |
| Member of the Verkhovna Rada | |
| In office 15 May 1990 – 10 May 1994 | |
| In office 25 May 2006 – 27 November 2014 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 March 1949[1] |
| Died | 29 August 2020 (aged 71) Simferopol, Crimea |
| Party | Party of Regions |
Early life
Tikhonov was born on 5 March 1949 in Shchotove, which was then part of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union.[2] He was ethnically Russian.[2] After graduating secondary school, he worked at the "Voroshylovhradteplovoz" plant, before completing his mandatory military service with the Soviet Armed Forces in Odesa.[2] In 1978, he graduated from the Voroshilovgrad Machinebuilding Institute, before returning to work at Voroshylovhradteplovoz, where he held various engineering and trade unionship leadership roles until 1990.[2] He later received a degree in law from the Luhansk Institute of Internal Affairs, and was granted the title of Candidate of Legal Sciences in 2003.[2]
Political career
For a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union, he served as First Secretary of the Luhansk City Committee (or mayor of the city).[2]
Tikhonov served in the Verkhovna Rada from 1990 to 1994 for electoral district 52 in Luhansk[1] and again from 2006[3] to 2014 as a member of the Party of Regions.[4] He also served as the First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine from 11 March 2010 until 1 June 2011, with the Cabinet of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.[5]
Additionally, Tikhonov was chairman of the Luhansk Regional Council in eastern Ukraine from 1998 to 2006.[5] He also served as the ambassador to Belarus from 2011 to 2012.[5]
Legal issues
In 2004, he was a participant in the Sievierodonetsk Congress, which called for an autonomous south-eastern republic from Ukraine if Viktor Yanukovych was not ceritifed as President of Ukraine.[6] For this, in 2005, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a case against him under Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, but the case did not proceed.[6]
In September 2014, following his departure from Ukraine following the events of Euromaidan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs opened a criminal case again him for participating in a plenary session of the Russian State Duma, during which he met with Speaker of the Duma, Sergei Naryshkin.[7]
Personal life
In a 2016 interview, Tikhonov stated that he now permanently lived in Russian-occupied Crimea.[5]
Viktor Tikhonov died from pneumonia in Simferopol on 29 August 2020, at the age of 71.[5]