Mykola Azarov

Azarov was born in Kaluga to a half-Russian and half-Estonian father, Jaan Pahlo, and a Russian mother, Yekaterina Pavlovna Kvasnikova, as Nikolay Pakhlo. When he married his wife, Lyudmila Azarova, he took her name. Azarov attended the Moscow State University where he earned his doctorate in geology and mineralogy in 1973. He worked at the Tulaugol coal enterprise until 1976. Azarov moved to Donetsk permanently in 1984 to become deputy director of the Ukrainian State Geological Institute, that he went on to head. In 1984–1995 he was a deputy director and director of Ukraine's State Research and Design Institute of Mining Geology and Geomechanics. In 1991 he was hired as a professor at Donetsk National Technical University. ==Political career==

Parliamentary career In 1994 Azarov was elected member of the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) for the first time, representing the Petroskiy electoral district, located in the city of Donetsk. In 1995–1997 he served as head of the parliament's Committee on Budgets while also sitting on the Verkhovna Rada's presidium. In parliament, he belonged to an inter-regional group of MPs supporting then-President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. In 1995, while carrying on as an MP, Azarov was appointed an adviser to the currency council of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. In 1996 he became Chairman of the State Tax Administration of Ukraine. Head of State Tax Administration Azarov was a long-term (1996–2002) head of the State Tax Administration. During this period tax inspections were used to limit the freedom of the press in Ukraine. On tapes made during the Cassette Scandal Azarov is heard speaking on recordings, secretly recorded in Kuchma's office by Kuchma's bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko, about using his position as the head of the tax authority to pressure officials to ensure Kuchma's reelection in 1999. Critics also stated that the recordings implicated Azarov in other corrupt schemes, including allegedly covering up graft at the state natural gas company Naftogaz, Azarov has vehemently refuted all these allegations. During the first Yanukovych Government governing the set of economic reforms was implemented including fiscal, tax, pensionary, regulatory reforms. During Azarov's first term as Finance Minister, the annual GDP growth was 9.6% in 2003 and 12.1% in 2004 (cf. 2.7% in 2005) in Ukraine, with capital investments of 31.3% and 28.0% After the runoff, Yanukovych attempted to resume his duties as prime minister, but effectively unable to do so, announced his resignation on 31 December 2004, and Azarov was named acting prime minister again. Azarov continued as acting prime minister until shortly after the inauguration of Viktor Yushchenko, when Yulia Tymoshenko was appointed prime minister on 24 January 2005. Viktor Yanukovych offered three candidates for prime minister on 21 February 2010: Sergei Tigipko, Our Ukraine faction member Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Azarov. Azarov had headed Yanukovych's election campaign during the 2010 Presidential elections. Of the 343 lawmakers registered in the session hall, 242 voted in favor of the appointment. The following month he was elected head of the Party of Regions. In 28 October 2012 parliamentary election he was (re)-elected into parliament heading the party list of Party of Regions. Following Azarov's resignation as prime minister on 3 December 2012 (after several cabinet members including Azirov were elected to parliament in the previous election, something which obliged them to give up their ministerial mandates) his cabinet stayed on as caretaker government from 3 December 2012. On 5 December President Yanukovych stated "Azarov has good chances of remaining prime minister, (but) a lot will depend on whom he brings to his team". On 9 December Yanukovych nominated him for a new term as prime minister. This nomination was approved by parliament on 13 December 2012. On 24 December 2012 the second Azarov Government was appointed by President Yanukovych. Resignation as Prime Minister Azarov resigned on 28 January 2014 amid heavy riots and the Euromaidan protests. Yevhen Murayev told Dmitry Gordon that he took the fleeing Azarov out of Ukraine from Kharkiv to Belgorod during the events of Maidan. Azarov flew to Austria to join family members in a private jet hours after quitting. As of 23 February 2014 Azarov has been residing in Russia. On 29 March 2014, during a party congress, Azarov was expelled from the Party of Regions. Post-resignation On 3 August 2015, Azarov announced the creation of the Ukraine Salvation Committee (Комитет спасения Украины) set up outside Ukraine (in Moscow), seeking to have "all citizens, political parties, labor union and social movements to unite and restore order in our home by joint efforts" and to change Ukraine's leadership. The committee's chairman and its choice for President of Ukraine is Volodymyr Oliynyk. ==Interpol Red Notice==

As of 12 January 2015, Azarov has had an Interpol Red Notice issued, along with ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and former Minister of Finance Yuriy Kolobov, on charges of 'Misappropriation, embezzlement or conversion of property by malversation, if committed in respect of an especially gross amount, or by an organized group.' Since 3 July 2014, Azarov is in the international wanted list for abuse of power. ==Family==

Azarov's son, Oleksiy, was a constituency candidate in Sloviansk for the Party of Regions during the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. He was elected into parliament. In April 2014, Austrian authorities began an investigation of Oleksiy Azarov, among several other Ukrainians close to the former government, on money-laundering suspicions. Austrian banks reported suspicious capital flows earlier in 2014. ==Cultural and political image==

Azarov speaks Ukrainian poorly. Still, he assured his constituents in early March 2010 that his government would be speaking Ukrainian. In an 11 March 2010 article the UK daily The Guardian labeled him the most Russophile member of the new cabinet. In the same article, an anonymous Ukrainian official noted, "He's extremely boring and anti-populist". A November 2010 Razumkov Centre nationwide survey showed that only 13.2 percent of respondents fully support his government while 45 percent stated they did not. On 13 December 2012, during the parliamentary discussion of Azarov's candidacy for the Prime Minister of Ukraine, People's Deputy of Ukraine Iryna Farion publicly asked for clarification on the reason for Azarov's inability to master the state language. On that the candidate to the prime minister of Ukraine replied that he agreed to improve his Ukrainian. ==Views on society==

Azarov had the Prime Ministerial office blessed by a priest from Kyiv Pechersk Lavra soon after he was elected prime minister in 2010. After criticism from female politicians at home and abroad, Azarov explained that he meant he would not wish any woman, especially if she has children, to work more than 15 hours a day as a Ukrainian minister does. In response Ukrainian women's rights groups filed different court cases against him. In a 22 January 2021 Facebook post on the occasion of the Day of Unity of Ukraine celebrating the 1919 symbolic unification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic, Azarov claimed that instead, the 1939 Soviet annexation of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia should be recognized as the day Ukraine gained "the real unity of Ukraine". == See also ==