Oleh Yaroslavovych Tyahnybok is a Ukrainian politician and far-right activist who is a former member of the Verkhovna Rada and the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist Svoboda political party.
26 Facts About Oleh Tyahnybok
2.
Oleh Tyahnybok's father, Yaroslav Tyahnybok, a Merited Doctor of Ukraine, was a distinguished sports doctor, chief physician of the Soviet national boxing team, and a former boxer himself who achieved the title of the Master of Sports of the USSR.
3.
Oleh Tyahnybok's great-grandfather was a brother of Lonhyn Tsehelsky, a politician in the West Ukrainian People's Republic.
4.
Oleh Tyahnybok graduated from the institute in 1993 as a qualified surgeon.
5.
In 1994 25-year-old Oleh Tyahnybok was elected to the Lviv Oblast Council, and in 1998 he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada.
6.
In October 1991 Oleh Tyahnybok became a member of the Social-National Party of Ukraine.
7.
Oleh Tyahnybok is characterised as representative of Ukraine's far right.
8.
From 1994 until 1998, Oleh Tyahnybok served as a member of the Lviv Regional Council.
9.
In 1998, Oleh Tyahnybok was first elected to the Ukrainian Parliament as a member of Social-National Party of Ukraine; in the parliament he became a member of the People's Movement of Ukraine faction.
10.
In 2002, Oleh Tyahnybok was reelected to the Ukrainian parliament as a member of Victor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc.
11.
On 20 July 2004 Oleh Tyahnybok was expelled from the Our Ukraine parliamentary faction after he made a speech in the Carpathian Mountains at the gravesite of a commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
12.
Oleh Tyahnybok denied that he was anti-Semitic, saying he was rather pro-Ukrainian.
13.
Since that time Oleh Tyahnybok has won nine court cases in that regard.
14.
Court decisions have recognized that the criminal case was raised unlawfully, and that the actions of TV-channel "Inter" as well as of the Head of the Derzhkomnatsmihratsia H Moskal were recognized as ones that insult the honor and dignity of Oleh Tyahnybok and caused him moral damage.
15.
Oleh Tyahnybok stated in 2012 "this speech is relevant even today" and "All I said then, I can repeat now".
16.
Since February 2004 Oleh Tyahnybok has headed the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" political party.
17.
Oleh Tyahnybok stood as a candidate for the post of Mayor of Kyiv during the 2008 Kyiv local election in 2008.
18.
Oleh Tyahnybok stood as a candidate for President of Ukraine in the 2010 presidential election representing the All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom" party.
19.
Oleh Tyahnybok did present a list of some 20 demands that second-round candidate Yulia Tymoshenko would have had to fulfil first before gaining his endorsement - which included publicizing alleged secret deals Tymoshenko had with Vladimir Putin and ridding herself of what he called Ukraine-haters in her close circles.
20.
On 14 October 2018, Oleh Tyahnybok announced he would not take part in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election but that his party had instead decided to nominate Ruslan Koshulynskyi as the candidate of nationalist political forces.
21.
Oleh Tyahnybok believes that a "Muscovite-Jewish mafia" controls Ukraine and has attacked what he says is the "criminal activities of organized Jewry in Ukraine".
22.
Oleh Tyahnybok has praised controversial far-right Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera saying in 2015 that the "current government came to power using Bandera's slogans, so it has to follow his ideas".
23.
Oleh Tyahnybok wants to deprive Crimea of its autonomous status and Sevastopol of its special status.
24.
Oleh Tyahnybok wants to introduce an "ethnicity" section into Ukrainian passports, start a visa regime with Russia, and require Ukrainians to pass a Ukrainian language test to work in the civil service.
25.
Oleh Tyahnybok believes this would stop the "Russian virtual war on Ukraine".
26.
Oleh Tyahnybok was voted Person of the Year for 2012 by readers of the country's leading news magazine, Korrespondent.