1.
Leonid Kuchma
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Leonid Danylovych Kuchma is a Ukrainian politician who was the second President of independent Ukraine from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. Kuchma took office after winning the 1994 presidential election against his rival, Kuchma won re-election for an additional five-year term in 1999. His presidency was surrounded by numerous scandals and the lessening of media freedoms. Corruption accelerated after Kuchmas election in 1994, but in 2000–2001, on his watch the Ukrainian economy continued to decline until 1999, whereas growth was recorded since 2000, bringing relative prosperity to some segments of urban residents. During his presidency, Ukrainian-Russian ties began to improve, after a successful career in the machine-building industry of the Soviet Union, Kuchma began his political career in 1990, when he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada, he was re-elected in 1994. He served as Ukrainian Prime Minister between October 1992 and September 1993, since July 2014, Kuchma has been Ukraines representative at the semi-official peace talks regarding the ongoing War in Donbass. Leonid Kuchma was born in the village of Chaikine in rural Chernihiv Oblast and his father Danylo Prokopovych Kuchma was wounded in World War II and eventually died of his wounds in the field hospital #756 when Leonid was four. His mother Paraska Trokhymivna Kuchma worked at a kolhoz, Kuchma attended the Kostobobrove general education school in the neighboring Semenivka Raion. Later he enrolled in Dnipropetrovsk National University and graduated in 1960 with a degree in mechanical engineering, the same year he joined the Communist Party of Soviet Union. Kuchma is a candidate of technical sciences, after graduation, Kuchma worked in the field of aerospace engineering for the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipropetrovsk. At 28 he became a director for the Bureau deployed at the Baikonur cosmodrome. At 38 Kuchma became the Communist party chief at Yuzhny Machine-building Plant and he was a delegate of the 27th and 28th Congresses of the Communist Party of Soviet Union. By the end of the 1980s, Kuchma openly criticized the Communist Party, in 1982 Kuchma was appointed the first deputy of general design engineer at Yuzhmash, and from 1986 to 1992, he held the position of the companys general director. From 1990 to 1992, Kuchma was a member of the Verkhovna Rada, in 1992 he was appointed as Prime Minister of Ukraine. He resigned a year later, complaining of slow pace of reform and he was re-elected into parliament in 1994. Kuchma won a victory against the incumbent President Leonid Kravchuk, receiving strong support from the industrial areas in the east. His worst results were in the west of the country, Kuchma was re-elected in 1999 to his second term. This time the areas that gave him strongest support last time voted for his opponents, during Kuchmas Presidency, he closed opposition papers and several journalists died in mysterious circumstances
2.
Herman Van Rompuy
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Herman Achille, Count Van Rompuy is a Belgian and European politician, who formerly served as Prime Minister of Belgium and then as the first President of the European Council. A politician from Belgiums Christian Democratic and Flemish party, Van Rompuy served as the 49th prime minister of Belgium from 30 December 2008 until Yves Leterme succeeded him on 25 November 2009. He was appointed for the period from 1 December 2009 until 31 May 2012, on 1 March 2012 he was re-elected for a second term, to last from 1 June 2012 until 30 November 2014. Born in Etterbeek, Brussels, to Dr Vic Van Rompuy and Germaine Geens, he attended Sint-Jan Berchmanscollege in Brussels, during his early teens, he was an avid rock and roll fan, especially of US singer Elvis Presley. Later he studied at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and received a degree in philosophy. He worked at the Belgian central bank from 1972 to 1975, from 1980 to 1987 he was a lecturer at the Handelshogeschool Antwerpen, from 1982 he was also a lecturer at the Vlaamse Economische Hogeschool Brussel. Van Rompuy is married to Geertrui Windels, with whom he has four children, Peter, Laura, Elke and his eldest son, Peter, is active in the Christian Democratic and Flemish party and stood as a candidate in the Belgian regional elections of 2009. His younger brother, Eric Van Rompuy, is also a politician in the CD&V and was a minister in the Flemish Government from 1995 to 1999 and his sister, Tine Van Rompuy, is a member of the Workers Party of Belgium. He has another sister, Anita Van Rompuy, who is not politically active and his father, Vic Van Rompuy, was an economics professor. Van Rompuy was the chairman of the national Christian Peoples Partys youth council, from 1975 to 1980 he worked in the ministerial cabinets of Leo Tindemans and Gaston Geens. In 1978 he was elected a member of the national CVPs bureau and he first was elected to the Belgian Senate in 1988 and served until 1995. In 1988 he shortly served as Secretary of State for Finance and for Small, Van Rompuy was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget from September 1993 to July 1999 in the two governments led by Jean-Luc Dehaene. As budget minister, together with finance minister Philippe Maystadt, he helped drive down Belgiums debt from a peak of 135% of gross domestic product in 1993 and it fell to below 100% of GDP in 2003. He was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in the 1995 general election, after his partys defeat in the 1999 Belgian general election, he became a member of the Chamber of Representatives. He was re-elected in 2003 and 2007, in 2004, he was designated Minister of State. Before he was President, Van Rompuy expressed reticence about possible Turkish membership of the EU, in 2004, he stated An enlargement with Turkey is not in any way comparable with previous enlargement waves. Turkey is not Europe and will never be Europe, as President, Van Rompuy has avoided opposing Turkish membership. On 23 December 2010, he said Turkish reform efforts have delivered impressive results and he continued Turkey plays an ever more active role in its neighbourhood
3.
Leonid Kravchuk
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Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk is a former Ukrainian politician and the first President of Ukraine, who served from 5 December 1991, until his resignation on 19 July 1994. He is also a former Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and Peoples Deputy of Ukraine serving in the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine faction. After a political crisis involving the President and the Prime Minister, Kravchuk resigned from the Presidency and he was defeated by his former Prime Minister, Leonid Kuchma, who served as President for two terms. He is currently retired from politics, Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk was born in 1934 in the village of Velykyi Zhytyn to a peasant family. At that time the village was located in Aleksandrija gmina, Rowno powiat in Poland, the village became part of Rivne Oblast in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after the Soviet invasion in 1939 when Kravchuk was a child. His father served in the Polish cavalry in the 1930s, and later he, during World War II Kravchuks father perished on the front lines. Kravchuk married math teacher Antonina Mykhailivna Mishura in 1957, first Lady of the United States from 1989-93, Barbara Bush, described Antonina in her memoirs, She was the nicest young woman, a math teacher with absolutely no interest in politics. Kravchuk joined the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1958 and rose through the ranks of the party and of its agitprop department. He became a member of the Ukrainian Politburo in 1989, and on 23 July 1990 became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, after the 19–21 August 1991 Soviet coup attempt Kravchuk resigned from the Communist Party. After the Verkhovna Rada passed the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine on 24 August, Kravchuk was vested with presidential powers, thus becoming both de facto and de jure head of state. Later that year, on 5 December 1991, voters elected him president in Ukraines first presidential election. On the same day, the voters voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Soviet Union, Leonid Kravchuks political creed is avoiding conflicts and straightforward declaration of his position. He is widely considered to be cunning, diplomatic, and cautious and he describes himself as a man who refuses to take an umbrella because he hopes to slip between the raindrops. Such diplomacy helped Kravchuk to retain and strengthen his power over Ukraine during the transition from Soviet rule to independence and he was third in command in Ukraines CPSU leadership before the fall of Soviet Union even though he didnt belong to the ruling Dnipropetrovsk group. He avoided inflexible positions towards democratic changes and was a figure for both party conservatives and reformists. Soon after his defeat in 1994, Kravchuk joined the powerful business and this group, led by oligarchs Viktor Medvedchuk and Hryhoriy Surkis, is formally organized as the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine. Despite its formal centrist/social-democratic slogans, the party is associated with big business, organized crime, corruption. In 2004, Surkis was banned from visiting the United States, the group also took a strongly pro-Russian and anti-Western stand
4.
Sergey Mironov
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Sergey Mikhailovich Mironov is a Russian politician. He was Chairman of the Federation Council, the house of the Russian parliament. He leads the faction A Just Russia in the Parliament of Russia, in 1967 he joined the Komsomol. In the 1970s, Sergey Mironov served in the troops in the Soviet Army. In 1973 he was elected as deputy secretary committee of the Komsomol on ideological educational work at the Leningrad Mining Institute, after graduating from the Institute he worked as an engineer-geophysicist. After a brief time of working as an entrepreneur, he entered politics and, in June 2000, he was elected vice-Chairman of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and, in 2001, entered the Federation Council of Russia as a representative of St. Petersburg. In December 2001, Sergey Mironov was elected to be a Speaker of the Federation Council, Sergey Mironov is from Saint Petersburg. Mironov was a candidate in the 2004 presidential election and he was not considered to be a serious candidate and was quoted as saying, We all want Vladimir Putin to be the next president. He polled less than one per cent of the vote, in October 2006, he became the leader of the new left-wing opposition party A Just Russia, which was formed by uniting Rodina, Mironovs Russian Party of Life, and the Russian Pensioners Party. This effectively makes him the leader of the opposition as the three together would be stronger than the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Mironov has several proposed a amendment to the Russian constitution that would allow the President to be elected for 3 consecutive 5 or 7 year terms. In 2007, Boris Gryzlov, leader of the rival United Russia party, in the March 2012 presidential election, he received 3. 86% of the votes. In March 2014, Mironov was included in list of Russian government sanctioned individuals because of their direct or alleged indirect involvement in the 2014 Crimean crisis. On 25 July 2014, amidst an armed insurgency in Eastern Ukraine, third wife, Mironova Irina Yurievna - officer apparatus to the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS. They have a son and a daughter, Mironov has an official blog at sergey_mironov. This was confirmed as authorized by a statement on his official website, in 2008, President Vladimir Putin awarded Mironov the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd degree. In 2011, after an initiative of United Russia in Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly, Mironov was recalled from the Federation Council
5.
Abubakar Saleh Michika
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Abubakar Saleh Michika was the first civilian governor of Adamawa State, Nigeria from 2 January 1992 to 17 November 1993. Saleh Michika created a stir when he said in 1992 that he would be willing to relocate to the neighboring Cameroun if there were a coup in Nigeria. A pragmatist, before the 1993 elections he refused to meet Bashir Tofa, the candidate of his NRC party. Abiola, candidate of the rival Social Democratic Party came to his state, in January 2002, Michika described the National Assembly members as corrupt officials for whom he had no respect, and warned of the danger of another military coup. In October 2002, Saleh Michika was a contender to become the All Nigeria Peoples Party candidate for the Adamawa governorship. However, the commissioner of police, Alhaji Muhammad Sambo. The bandits just wanted to snatch the corporals gun, Saleh Michika is now retired from active politics
6.
Tunne Kelam
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Tunne-Väldo Kelam is an Estonian politician and Member of the European Parliament from Estonia. He is a member of the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union, secondary School in 1954 he studied history in the University of Tartu. He was a researcher in the State Central Archives in Tartu. From 1959 till 1970, as a member of the Science society, Kelam was also part-time lecturer and columnist on international relations. In 1972 he prepared a memorandum to the UN on behalf of two underground groups, which asked for the UN assistance to evacuate the Soviet occupation forces. Smuggled out of the country, the memorandum caused lively interest in the West, Kelam narrowly escaped arrest but lost his job in the Encyclopaedia and all his public activities were suppressed. From 1979 till 1987 Kelam was employed as a worker on a state poultry farm. By the end of the 1980s he had one of the leading advocates for restoration of independence in Estonian society. In August 1988 Kelam became a member of the Estonian National Independence Party. In 1989 he emerged as one of the leaders of the Estonian Citizens Committees Movement - a massive citizens initiative in support of restoration of the independent nation state, from 1990 to 1992 Kelam served as chairman of the Estonian Committee, an executive body of the Congress of Estonia. In August 1991 he was instrumental in achieving a national understanding with the Soviet Estonias Supreme Council on the principles of restoring Estonian statehood. Kelam was member of the Constitutional Assembly and was elected to the first constitutional parliament, the Riigikogu, in 1992 and he was a Vice Speaker of Riigikogu and chairman of the European Affairs Committee. He succeeded Mart Laar as its chairman, in 2002–2003 he represented the Riigikogu in the Convention on the Future of Europe. He was elected to the membership of the European Parliament in 2004, in 2009 and he is also a board member of the Human Rights Institute, the Kistler-Ritso Foundation which built the Museum of Occupations in Tallinn and was chief elder of the Estonian Scouting Association. Kelam is a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience. And is one of the initiators of the European Parliaments resolution on European Conscience and he also initiated the publication of the book Reunification of Europe which presents the 20th century experiences of ten post-Communist EU member states. He is honorary citizen of the State of Maryland, tunne Kelam is married to Mari-Ann Kelam, a politician and former press spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has a daughter from a previous marriage, tunne Kelam has also written two books
7.
Urmas Paet
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Urmas Robert Paet is an Estonian politician and Member of the European Parliament from Estonia. He is a member of the Reform Party, part of the Alliance of Liberals and he has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2014 and Minister of Culture from 2003 to 2005. He was a member of the Member of the Estonian Parliament from 2003 to 2014 and he graduated from the University of Tartu in 1996 with a BA in political science and continued his graduate studies there, but without obtaining the degree. He was active in journalism during his studies, first at Estonian Radio and later at Postimees, Paet continued his career in journalism until 1999, when he entered politics by joining the Reform Party and becoming professional advisor. He served as the Deputy Mayor of Nõmme from 1999 to 2003, in April 2003, when the Juhan Parts government took office, Paet became Estonian Minister of Culture. In this capacity, he helped launch a new theatre, Theatre NO99 Paet remained in position until April 2005. In April 2005, when the Andrus Ansip cabinet took office, by the time he left office, he was the second longest-serving foreign minister in Europe. Paet has been a Member of the European Parliament since the 2014 European elections, a member of the ALDE political faction, he currently serves on the Committee on Budgets. In this capacity, he authored a 2016 parliamentary resolution in favor of plans to increase European spending on military missions, in addition to his committee assignments, Paet is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Digital Agenda and the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights. In 2015, Paet nominated murdered Russian politician Boris Nemtsov for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, in the 2015 Estonian elections, Paet received enough votes to take up a seat in the national parliament yet decided to keep his seat in the European Parliament. Paet is married and has three daughters and he speaks Estonian, German, Finnish, English and Russian. Foreign Ministers Homepage Urmas Paet at Estonian Reform Partys website Media related to Urmas Paet at Wikimedia Commons
8.
Irina Khakamada
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Irina Mutsuovna Khakamada is a Russian politician who ran in the Russian presidential election,2004. She is a member of The Other Russia coalition and her paternal uncle is Satomi Hakamada, a longtime member of the Japanese Communist Party leadership. The Russia expert and Aoyama Gakuin University political science professor Shigeki Hakamada is her half-brother, in Kanji, her family name is 袴田, in katakana, her name is イリーナ・ハカマダ. She graduated from the Department of Economy of the Patrice Lumumba Peoples Friendship University in Moscow in 1978 and she later obtained her PhD degree from the Faculty of Economics of Lomonosov Moscow State University. She was a member of the CPSU from 1984 to 1989, irina Khakamada was an elected Duma representative from 1993 to 2003. She is commonly regarded as a politician who is in a moderate opposition to the Russian government. She is known for criticizing the actions during Moscow theater hostage crisis where she was involved as one of the negotiators. Khakamada stated that the hostage takers were not going to use their bombs to kill the people and this opinion was supported by other negotiators including Anna Politkovskaya and by the subsequent events when the Chechens did not use their bombs. Khakamada was one of the leaders of the Union of Rightist Forces and she was not supported by her own party, because they regarded her as the only opponent of president Putin. After the election, Khakamada founded a party, Our Choice. She published book Gender in big-time politics describing her experience of work in Kremlin. On June 11,2006 Boris Berezovsky, fugitive from Russian justice system, said Boris Nemtsov received a word from Khakamada that Putin threatened her, former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko said he had learned from Anna Politkovskaya that Putin asked Khakamada to pass a threat to Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya and Litvinenko were murdered in October and November 2006, respectively
9.
Manuel de Brito Camacho
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He was the founder of the Partido Unionista, and director of the newspaper A Luta, the mouthpiece of the same Party. Manuel de Brito Camacho was born on Monte das Mesas, in the vicinity of Rio de Moinhos and he was the half-brother of Inocêncio Camacho Rodrigues, the governor of the Bank of Portugal involved in the scandal caused by the thefts of Alves dos Reis. After primary studies in Aljustrel, he attended the Beja secondary school, afterward leaving for Lisbon where he attend preparatory studies at the Escola Politécnica, as a ward of uncle in Lisbon. In 1891 he joined the Portuguese Army as surgeon-adjunct, and assigned to the units in Tancos and later Torres Novas. His political career began in the 1893 General Elections, when he was a candidate for the district of Beja on the Republican electoral list, at that time he published Nove de Junho, which questioned monarchist institutions. Following the election, he was disciplined, suspended for a year, shortly afterward he was reassigned to the Azores for his republican ideals, where he remained for a year. In 1894, he returned to Viseu, and began regularly contributed as a correspondent, in 1902 he presented a doctoral thesis in Medicine at the University of Paris, but abandoned his practice definitively as military medic, dedicated himself completely to journalism and politics. He promoted a conference titled A Coroa substituída pelo chapéu de côco, although disconnected with medical practice, he did run for a professorship at the Escola Médico-Cirúrgica de Lisboa in 1904. Brito Camacho founded, with other like-minded Republicans, the magazine A Lucta, the publication quickly turned into an influential republican source, transforming itself into an official organ of the Partido Unionista. In elections following the Lisbon Regicide he was elected as Republican deputy, transforming himself in the National Assembly, Camacho was one of the leaders of the movement that created the conditions for the implantation of the First Portuguese Republic on 5 October 1910. In preparation for events, Brito Camacho was an important connection between the Republican movement and segments of the Army with republican ideals. His political actions and connection with the Republican movement allowed him to mediate during the process of forming the Provisional Government that followed, on 23 November 1910 he was named the Ministério do Fomento in the Provisional Government of Teófilo Braga. Courses in these fields were also standardized with a period of study lasting two-years followed by a three-year period of specialized study. In December 1910 Camacho was responsible for the creation of the Associação de Classe Industrial de Veículos e Artes Correlativas, in September 1911, in the first post-Revolutionary elections, he was returned to the government benches. But, as Brito Camacho resumed the directorship of A Lucta and he eventually led a faction on the right of the political spectrum whom split from the Republican Party to form the Partido da União Republicana, later abbreviated to the Partido Unionista. The newspaper, A Luta began to function as an organ of the Party, in 1918, after the election of António José de Almeida as President, the Unionist and Evolutionist Parties decided to merge, creating the Partido Liberal Republicano. Between March 1921 and September 1923 he exercised functions as the Republican High-Commissioner in Portuguese Mozambique, generally, he was a militant republican throughout his life, with an acidic tongue and who was not too popular or respected during his time. His acerbic humor was a reflection of his upbringing and life
