Serhiy Ratushniak
| Serhiy Ratushnyak | |
|---|---|
| Mayor of Uzhgorod | |
|
In office 2006 – 2010 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Serhiy Mykolayovych Ratushnyak 17 February 1961 Uzhgorod, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Political party | Independent, former party's include: Hromada, For United Ukraine, Our Ukraine, Regions of Ukraine, People's Party |
Serhiy Mykolayovych Ratushnyak (Ukrainian: Сергій Миколайович Ратушняк; born February 17, 1961) is a former Mayor of Uzhhorod and was a self-nominated candidate in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election. During the election Ratushnyak received 0.12% of the votes.
Ratushniak was born in Uzhgorod, Ukrainian SSR. 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.
In August 2009, Ratushnyak was alleged to have beaten a female campaigner of fellow presidential candidate, Arseniy Yatseniuk (Front of Change) 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, Ratushniak denies the claims. Ratushniak was not previously known to be anti-Semitic. Following his nomination Ratushniak told a local paper that the Jews were to blame for all his country's troubles. Ratushnyak has also called Yatsenyuk "a nasty Jew mason" 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". 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?".
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. Ratushniak also believes Americans should atone for killing native Indians before meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs. He also wants to tax the rich, develop nuclear arms and oblige all Ukrainians to learn another foreign language, apart from Russian.
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