Viktor Uspaskich

Viktor Uspaskich (right) together with Silvio Berlusconi at the constitution of the 9th European Parliament in July 2019

Viktor Uspaskich ( Russian Виктор Викторович Успасских ; born July 24, 1959 in Urdoma , Arkhangelsk Oblast , Soviet Union ) is a Lithuanian entrepreneur and politician of Russian origin, founder of the Darbo Partija ( Labor Party ), Lithuanian Minister of Economics (2004-2005 won the Lithuanian parliamentary election) .

Life

Viktor Uspaskich began his way to work in the Soviet Union as a worker at the gas pipeline company Nordlicht . He became a specialist in laying gas pipes. Since 1985 he has worked in this activity in Lithuania. In 1990 he founded his first company, Efektas, in Kėdainiai . From 1993 he made his career as head of the company UAB Vikonda and came to money and influence. Vikonda is a conglomerate, which mainly includes companies from the food and animal breeding / animal feed industries, but also service companies. According to his own statements, he studied economics in Moscow at the distance learning department of the Plekhanov Academy from 1988 to 1993 . Building on this, Uspaskich completed postgraduate studies in Kaunas by 2000 . The suspicion of forgery of the Moscow diploma was one of the reasons for Uspaskich's resignation as Minister of Economy in May 2005. From 1997 to 2003 he headed the Lithuanian Employers' Association (Lietuvos darbdavių asociacija) as chairman.

Viktor Uspaskich is married to Jolanta Blažytė for the second time and has four children (two from his first marriage and two from his second marriage). He speaks Lithuanian and Russian .

politics

In autumn 2000 he was elected to parliament ( Seimas ) as a non-party member on the ticket of the Social Liberal Party . There he headed the Economic Affairs Committee until 2003. In preparation for his own political ambitions, he resigned from this office, left the Social Liberals faction and founded his own party, called Darbo Partija . This party was at the top of opinion polls just a few months after it was founded in October 2003.

With populist statements and promises of salvation, she was able to score points above all with the ordinary population and in October 2004 achieved the highest number of votes in the parliamentary elections with 28.4%.

Although all the established parties had initially ruled out cooperation with the Labor Party, the previously ruling Social Democrats / Social Liberals very quickly agreed on a coalition with the Labor Party, on the condition that the incumbent Prime Minister Brazauskas would remain in office. Uspaskich agreed and received the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Just a few months after taking office, reports in the media and accusations from the opposition, which dealt with his opaque business relationships with Russia, the possible preferential treatment of his own companies in the allocation of EU support and, most recently, the possibility of obtaining an academic degree by fraud, piled up. On June 16, 2005, the state ethics committee accused him of illegitimate confusion of state and private interests, which Uspaskich vehemently denied. A week later, Viktor Uspaskich resigned from the post of Minister of Economics on June 23, 2005 after less than nine months. He also resigned from his parliamentary mandate. In August 2005, the Lithuanian State Security Agency opened an investigation into forgery of documents. These investigations fizzled out due to a lack of administrative assistance from Russia.

When investigations into illegal income and black coffers in the Labor Party finally began in May 2006, Uspaskich fled from Lithuania to Russia , officially initially to assist his family in Urdoma after the death of his brother . However, he then refused to return to Lithuania to avoid what he said was politically motivated persecution. On June 27, 2006, Uspaskich declared in Moscow that he would rest the party leadership and thus assume political responsibility for the investigation into his party. On August 26, 2006, Kęstutis Daukšys , who had been Uspaskich's successor as Minister of Economy from June 30, 2005 until the resignation of the government in the summer of 2006, was elected as Uspaskich's successor as chairman of the Darbo partija . In the fall of 2006, the public prosecutor published its investigations against Uspaskich and three other party leaders.

In the summer of 2007, Viktor Uspaskich, still from Moscow, applied in by-elections for a seat in the constituency of Dzūkija and returned to Lithuania on September 26, 2007 for this purpose. At the request of the public prosecutor's office, he was taken into custody at the airfield and then placed under house arrest by the court. His candidacy for the seat of parliament failed in the runoff election on October 21, 2007. On November 17, 2007, at the Labor Party congress near Kėdainiai, he was re-elected party chairman with 97% of the delegate's votes (no opponent). In April 2008, the house arrest provisions against Uspaskich were lifted against the deposit of 1.5 million litas (almost 450,000 euros), but Uspaskich is not allowed to leave Lithuania for more than seven days without the consent of the court.

On May 18, 2008, four members of the party leadership, including Uspaskich, had to stand trial in Vilnius . The charge was based on tax evasion amounting to 3.8 million litas (about 1.1 million euros) in the years 2004-2006 through undeclared income and expenses of the party amounting to 24 million and 23 million litas, respectively. In the parliamentary elections in October 2008 , Uspaskich was re-elected to parliament for the Labor Party and led his party's faction in the Seimas from November 18, 2008 . On December 9, 2008, Parliament followed the recommendations of the parliamentary commission and withdrew parliamentary immunity from Uspaskich by 90 votes to 12 (out of a total of 144) . The 2009 European elections provided the Darbo partija with a mandate that Uspaskich was able to secure as list leader. This means that he again benefits from parliamentary immunity.

Web links

• Entry on Viktor Uspaskich in the European Parliament 's database of deputies

Individual evidence

1. ↑ on the dispute about the authenticity of Uspaskich's diploma, message on delfi.lt (lit.)
2. ↑ Uspaskich in an interview on his "exile" in Moscow, message on delfi.lt (lit.)
3. ↑ Uspaskich before the parliamentary commission on the lifting of his parliamentary immunity in December 2008, message on delfi.lt (lit.)
4. ↑ Uspaskich's return to Lithuania and his arrest, message on delfi.lt (lit.)
5. ↑ Result of the by-election in constituency No. 38
6. ↑ Uspaskich was not allowed to leave the Kėdainiai District due to house arrest regulations
7. ↑ Uspaskichs re-election as party chairman of the Labor Party, report from delfi.lt (lit.)
8. ^ Lifting of house arrest against Uspaskich, message on delfi.lt (lit.)
9. ^ Allegations against Uspaskich, message on delfi.lt, July 1, 2008 (lit.)
10. ↑ Withdrawal of parliamentary immunity through parliamentary resolution, message on delfi.lt (lit.)
11. ^ MEPs from Lithuania in the European Parliament 2009-2014
12. ↑ As a member of the European Parliament, Uspaskich again enjoys protection from criminal prosecution, message on delfi.lt, June 19, 2009 (lit.)