Viktor Yanukovych - Cultural and Political Image

Cultural and Political Image

Yanukovych is seen by opponents as representing the interests of Ukraine big business; they point out that his campaigns have benefited from backing by Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. Supporters of Yanukovych point out Donetsk Oblast (province) secured unprecedented levels of investment during his governorship.

Yanukovych draws strong support from Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the east of the country. Yanukovych is disliked and distrusted in western Ukraine. The People's Movement of Ukraine labeled his election on 10 February 2010 as "an attack by anti-Ukrainian forces in our state" and stated that "all possible legal means should be used to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of anti-state politician Yanukovych and his pro-Moscow retinue". On 16 February 2010 Yanukovych issued a statement that read “I can say only one thing to those who anticipate that my presidency will weaken Ukraine – that will never happen. Yanukovych refers to himself as Ukrainian. Voters for Yanukovych in 2010 believed he would bring "stability and order". They blamed the Orange Revolution for creating broken promises, a dysfunctional economy and political chaos. During the 2010 presidential election campaign Yuriy Yakymenko, director of political research at the Razumkov Centre, stated "I think he has not just changed on the surface but also in his ideas."

In 2004 Yanukovych was seen as outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and Russian President Vladimir Putin's protégé. Although Kuchma in conversation with United States Ambassador to Ukraine John F. Tefft, in a document dated 2 February 2010 uncovered during the United States diplomatic cables leak, called the voters choice between Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko during the second round of the 2010 presidential election as a choice between “bad and very bad" and praised (the candidate eliminated in the first round of the election) Arseniy Yatsenyuk instead. In another January 2009 cable (then) Ambassador of Ukraine to Russia Kostyantyn Hryshchenko stated that Putin had a low personal regard for Yanukovych. In another Wikileaks diplomatic cable, Volodymyr Horbulin, one of Ukraine's most respected policy strategists and former presidential advisor to then-President Viktor Yushchenko, told the United States Ambassador to Ukraine John E. Herbst in 2006 that Yanukovych’s Party of Regions was partly composed of “pure criminals" and "criminal and anti-democracy figures."

Yanukovych is not known as a great speaker. His native language is Russian, similar to a majority of the population of his power-base and native Eastern Ukraine. He was however making efforts to speak better Ukrainian. He did admit in March 2012 that it was a problem for him in 2002 to speak Ukrainian. He has made some blunders in Ukrainian however since then. For the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election Yanukovych wrote an autobiography for the Central Election Commission, in which he misspelled his academic degree. Thereafter, he came to be widely referred to under this nickname in oppositional media and opponents' speeches. His autobiographic resume of 90 words contains 12 major spelling and grammatical errors. Opponents of Yanukovych made fun of this misspelling and his past (criminal) convictions during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election campaign and the incident during the campaign (September 2004) in Ivano-Frankivsk when Yanukovych was rushed to hospital after he had been hit with an egg (while government officials claimed he was hit by a brick) was a source of ridicule. Other famous blunders by Yanukovych are his claim that Anton Chekhov was "the Ukrainian poet" in January 2010, forgetting on 6 January 2011 to congratulate the Greek-Catholic Ukrainian community that by following the Julian calendar also as the rest of Ukrainian people celebrates Christmas that day and confusing Kosovo with Serbia and Montenegro, and North Ossetia with South Ossetia in March 2010.

Yanukovych stated in November 2009 that he respects all Ukrainian politicians. "I have never offended anyone. This is my rule of politics." Despite of his claim, on 22 September 2007, during 2007 Ukrainian Parliamentary Election campaign, while delivering a speech in Vinnytsia, he compared Yulia Tymoshenko's performance as Prime Minister to "a cow on the ice" (" Вона прем'єр-міністр, як корова на льду....", "She is as prime minister as a cow on the ice") most likely referring to her skills and professionalism as a prime minister. Other cases of strong colloquialisms used by Viktor Yanukovych include the incident when he called former president Viktor Yushchenko "a coward and a babbler" ("трус и трепач") as well as the speech in Donetsk during 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, when he referred to the electorate of his opponent Viktor Yushchenko as "goats that make our lives difficult" ("эти козлы, которые нам мешают жить"). Later, during the TV debates with Yushchenko he explained, "I called goats the traitors. According to the Bible, the goat is a traitor, and there are also rams, sheep."

Opinion polls have shown Yanukovych's popularity has sunk since his election as President in 2010, with polls giving him from 13% to 20% of the votes if a presidential election were to be held in 2012 (in 2010 he received 35.8% of the vote in the first round of that election).

American consultant Paul J. Manafort has advised Yanukovych since 2005.

The Ambassadors of the European Union to Ukraine, Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira, stated at an April 2012 interview with Korrespondent that Yanukovych's presidency "fell short of expectations".