Petro Poroshenko

Petro Poroshenko
Born	1965-09-26 Bolhrad, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Alma mater	Taras Shevchenko National University
Religion	Ukrainian Orthodox
Children	• Olexiy Yevheniya • Oleksandra Mykhaylo
Spouse	Maryna Perevedentseva
Party	Social Democratic Party, Independent, Our Ukraine Bloc, Petro Poroshenko Bloc
Attended at least 4 WEF annual meetings during his 5 year term as President of Ukraine  President of Ukraine In office 7 June 2014 - 20 May 2019 Preceded by Oleksandr Turchynov Succeeded by Volodymyr Zelensky  Ukraine/Minister of Trade and Economic Development In office 23 March 2012 - 24 December 2012  Ukraine/Minister of Foreign Affairs In office 9 October 2009 - 11 March 2010  Ukraine/Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council In office 8 February 2005 - 8 September 2005

Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko was the fifth President of Ukraine. He was Ukraine/Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010, and as the Ukraine/Minister of Trade and Economic Development in 2012. From 2007 until 2012, Poroshenko headed the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine.

He owns, along with a number of other companies, a large-scale confectionery business, which has earned him the nickname of 'Chocolate King'. He was elected president on 25 May 2014, capturing more than 54% of the vote in the first round, thereby winning outright and avoiding a run-off.

Early life and education

Poroshenko was born in the city of Bolhrad, in Odessa Oblast, on 26 September 1965, but was raised in the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine. He also spent his childhood and youth in Bendery (Moldavian SSR, now officially Moldova but under de facto control of the unrecognised breakaway state Transnistria.) His father Oleksiy was an agricultural engineer.

In his youth, Poroshenko practised judo and sambo, and was Candidate for Master of Sport of the USSR. Despite good grades he was not awarded the normal gold medal at graduation, and on his report card he was given a "C" for his behaviour. After getting into a fight with four Soviet Army cadets at the military commissariat, he was sent to army service in the distant Kazakh SSR.

In 1989, Poroshenko graduatedh (he started the study in 1982 with a degree in economics from the international relations and law department (subsequently the Institute of International Relations) at the Taras Shevchenko Kiev State University. In 1984, he married a medical student, Maryna Perevedentseva (born 1962). Their first son, Oleksiy, was born in 1985 (his three other children were born in 2000 and 2001). From 1989 to 1992, he was an assistant at the university’s international economic relations department.

Business career

While still a student, he founded a legal advisory firm mediating the negotiation of contracts in foreign trade, and then he undertook the negotiations himself, starting to supply cocoa beans to the Soviet chocolate industry in 1991. At the same time, he was deputy director of the ‘Republic’ Union of Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs, and the CEO of “Exchange House Ukraine”.

Politician

In 2000, Petro Poroshenko set up and chaired the Solidarity Party. After the victory of the ‘Orange Revolution’ in 2005, he was appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council and, in 2007, became head of Ukraine’s National Bank. From 2009 to 2010 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, in 2012 he became Minister of Trade and Economic Development. From December 2012, Petro Poroshenko was the Deputy for Verkhovna Rada and Member of the Committee on European Integration.

Opinions

Ukraine's civil war

Full article: 2014 Ukraine coup/Civil war

“we [in Ukraine] will have work they – [in the Donbas] won’t. We will have pensions – they won’t. We will care for our children and pensioners – they won’t. Our children will go to school, to kindergartens – their children will sit in cellars*. They don’t know how to organize or do anything. This, ultimately, is how we will win this war.”
Petro Poroshenko (2014) 
* He said that at a time when heavy weapons fire onto residential areas was well underway in the Donbas.

 

An appointment by Petro Poroshenko

Appointee	Job	Appointed	End
Lyudmyla Denisova	Ukraine/Ombudsman	15 March 2018	31 May 2022

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Russia/Encirclement	“Unfortunately, it’s US “diplomacy” which brought the US, Russia, Ukraine, and NATO to the current standoff. As the Warsaw Pact disintegrated and the Soviet Union collapsed, US encouragement for those events included pledges that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization wouldn’t take advantage of the situation to expand eastward. Since then, NATO has inexorably pushed in that direction, nearly doubling the number of member states. Thanks, US “diplomacy.” Things began coming to a head with the US-sponsored coup in Ukraine that replaced its “Russia-friendly” regime with a “US/Europe-friendly” regime in 2014, courtesy of Barack Obama. Thanks, US “diplomacy.” Then in 2019, the US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which forbade the US to place missiles within surprise strike distance of Russia, and Russia to place similar missiles within surprise strike distance of NATO. The US followed up by placing exactly such missiles in Poland, courtesy of Donald Trump. Some “diplomacy.”... Then the US went into overdrive (courtesy of Trump and Biden) against the opening of a pipeline (Nord Stream 2) which would have supplied Russian natural gas to Germany. The pipeline would have been a force for peace insofar as Russia likes to sell natural gas (at a fraction of prices the US can offer), and Germans like to not freeze to death.”	Thomas Knapp	2021

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Munich Security Conference/2023	17 February 2023	19 February 2023	Germany Munich Bavaria	Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists. The real decisions are made by deep politicians behind the scenes, elsewhere.
WEF/Annual Meeting/2014	22 January 2014	25 January 2014	World Economic Forum Switzerland	2604 guests in Davos considered "Reshaping The World"
WEF/Annual Meeting/2015	21 January 2015	24 January 2015	Switzerland	Attended by a lot of people. This page lists only the 261 "Public Figures".
WEF/Annual Meeting/2016	20 January 2016	23 January 2016	World Economic Forum Switzerland	Attended by a lot of people, both leaders and followers
WEF/Annual Meeting/2017	17 January 2017	20 January 2017	World Economic Forum Switzerland	2951 known participants
WEF/Annual Meeting/2019	22 January 2019	25 January 2019	World Economic Forum Switzerland