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. Ratushnyak 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the vote.[6] In 1998 he registered as a candidate for the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, but his registration was revoked shortly before the election.[6] In the 1998 Uzhhorod Mayoral elections he was reelected with 77% of the vote.[6] Ratushniak was a member of the Zakarpattia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, he simultaneously was reelected as Mayor, but he choose to be a People's Deputy of Ukraine.[6] In parliament he joined various factions: "Democracy", "Democratic Initiatives", For United Ukraine, Our Ukraine, Regions of Ukraine until in 2005 he settled on 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, Ratushnyak 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, he was accused of hooliganism, abuse of office and the violation of racial and national equality of citizens,[8] Ratushniak denies the claims.[9] Ratushniak was not previously known to be anti-Semitic.[9] Following his nomination Ratushniak told a local paper that the Jews were to blame for all his country's troubles.[9] Ratushnyak has also called Yatsenyuk "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] In late December 2009, Ratushniak called on President Viktor Yushchenko to declare war on Somalia; referring to the taking hostage of Ukrainian sailors by Somali pirates.[10] Ratushniak also stated that Americans should atone for killing native Indians before meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs.[10] His election platform included taxing the rich, develop nuclear arms and oblige 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]

During the 2010 Mayoral elections, Ratushniak ended in second place.[2]

Ratushniak tried to return to national politics in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election by trying to win, as an independent candidate, single-member districts number 68 (first-past-the-post wins a parliament seat) located in Uzhhorod; but he became 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 districts 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 as an independent candidate failed win.[15][16] Bohdan Andriyiv (of Revival) won the elections with 58.57% of the votes, 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 unmotivated 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]