Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi

Early life and career Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi was born on 1 January 1969 in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, then part of the Soviet Union. Khoroshkovskyi completed a postgraduate economics study at Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University in 1993.

In 2005, Khoroshkovskyi paid about $250 million for a 61% stake in Inter TV, one of Ukraine's biggest television channels. After Khoroshkovskyi was appointed as Head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine in December 2007 his wife became head of U.A. Inter Media Group.

In June 2010, both Kanal 5 and TVi accused Khoroshkovskyi of abusing his power and influence to preserve monopoly control of Ukraine's media airwaves and limit objective news reporting. Khoroshkovskyi replied (early June 2010) that he was ready to sell his media business to a willing buyer.

Khoroshkovskyi sold 100% of Inter Media Group Limited (back) to Firtash on 1 February 2013.

Political career Khoroshkovskyi was a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) from 1998 until 2002 after winning a seat in the Krasnoperekopsk constituency, representing the People's Democratic Party. As a lawmaker he voted for the removal of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko from his office in May 2001 which resulted in the end of Yushchenko's prime ministership.

During the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election Khoroshkovskyi represented the Team of Winter Generation,

In August 2002, Khoroshkovskyi was appointed deputy head in the Presidential Administration of President Leonid Kuchma.

In December 2006, President Viktor Yushchenko appointed Khoroshkovskyi as First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, from which Khoroshkovskyi resigned in May 2007. On 24 December 2007 Khoroshkovskyi was appointed as Head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine. The same day, Khoroshkovskyi was appointed First Deputy Chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). On 19 April 2010 Khoroshkovskyi was appointed a staff member of the National Bank of Ukraine by President Viktor Yanukovych. In 2010 he was also member of the Higher Council of Justice, that appoints and fires judges, from 31 May to 16 December.

The SBU opened its Soviet Ukrainian archives in January 2009. Khoroshkovskyi believes that the SBU should reduce public access to its archives and concentrate on its main task of being a secret service.

According to Member of the European Parliament Elmar Brok (who met Khoroshkovskyi when Khoroshkovskyi hosted a luxurious dinner for MEPs in Brussels in November 2010) "he doesn't seem to understand that threatening the independence of the judiciary is one of biggest mistakes you can make when you are trying to build a new state, he doesn't seem to understand what are the proper limits of his mandate."

President Yanukovych conferred a rank of general to Khoroshkovskyi in August 2011.

When Minister of Finance Fedir Yaroshenko resigned on 18 January 2012 he replaced by Khoroshkovskyi as the new Minister of Finance the same day.; Khoroshkovskyi was dismissed as head of the Security Service of Ukraine. On 22 February 2012 he was appointed First Vice Prime Minister and dismissed as finance minister. Relations with the European Union is among his responsibilities. He speaks good English.

In a 2012 interview to Deutsche Welle, Khoroshkovskyi claimed that Viktor Yanukovych was not being allowed to the European Union due to selective justice.

Khoroshkovskyi resigned from the interim Azarov Government on 14 December 2012 (the day after the re-appointment of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov ) because he "considered Azarov incapable of carrying out economic reforms and defending our country's strategic course for European integration".

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Khoroshkovskyi tried to return to national politics when he was second on the party list of Strong Ukraine (after party leader Serhiy Tihipko). But in the election the party failed to clear the 5% election threshold (it got 3.11% of the votes) and thus Khoroshkovskyi was not elected into parliament.