Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on Bulgaria & Ukraine

SHARE TWEET EMBED

•  

STAT	Bulgaria	Ukraine	HISTORY
Head of state > Term limit for head of state	5 Ranked 55th. The same as Ukraine	5 Ranked 58th.
President	Rosen Plevneliev	Viktor Yanukovych
President > Profile	<p>Rosen Plevneliev won the presidential elections in a run-off in October 2011, beating Socialist candidate Ivaylo Kalfin. </p> <p>He took office in January 2012 for a five-year term in a post that carries few real powers. </p> <p>As the candidate of the then-ruling centre-right GERB party, Mr Plevneliev&#039;s victory was expected to bolster the government&#039;s push for painful economic reforms. </p> <p>When the government of Boyko Borisov collapsed in February 2013 following mass protests over high electricity prices, Mr Plevneliev appointed a caretaker government before fresh elections in May resulted in the formation of a technocratic government headed by Plamen Oresharski.</p> <p>Before becoming president, Mr Plevneliev was construction minister in the GERB-dominated government of Boyko Borisov. Prior to that, he ran his own building and development company.</p>	<p>Mr Yanukovych was declared the winner of the second round of voting in the 2010 presidential election, with a 3.48% lead over Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.</p> <p>His inauguration as president marked the climax of Viktor Yanukovych&#039;s political comeback. First, he overcame the disgrace of the 2004/05 presidential defeat and retained the leadership of the Party of the Regions, leading it back into power as prime minister in 2006-2007.</p> <p>He narrowly lost the 2007 parliamentary elections, but benefited from discord between President Yushchenko and Mrs Tymoshenko and went on to capitalise on discontent over the government&#039;s failure to cope with the global economic crisis after 2008.</p> <p>Born into a poor family in Donetsk Region, eastern Ukraine&#039;s industrial powerhouse, in 1950, Mr Yanukovych had a troubled childhood and was twice jailed for violent crimes in his youth. On release he went to work in the local transport industry, where he rose through the ranks of management under the patronage of cosmonaut and local Soviet MP Georgi Beregovoi.</p> <p>He established a political power base in the Donetsk Region administration, becoming governor in 1997 and later head of the council. There he built close ties to local tycoon Rinat Akhmetov.</p> <p>President Kuchma appointed him prime minister in 2002, and nominated him as presidential candidate for the governing coalition of political and business interests in 2004.</p> <p>Mr Yanukovych has worked hard to distance himself from the scandals of the pre-2004 period and from accusations of being Russia&#039;s placeman. He says that his aim is to balance relations between Russia and the European Union, with EU integration as a &quot;strategic aim&quot;.</p> <p>His first two years in office saw extensive concessions to Russia, such as extending the Russian lease on the Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea and moves to restrict media freedom. However, he drew the line at taking Ukraine into a customs union with Russia.</p> <p>His government has regularly earned criticism from the United States, European Union and international rights groups over the imprisonment of Mrs Tymoshenko and other opposition politicians and the alleged rigging of the 2012 parliamentary elections.</p> <p>Progress towards reaching an association agreement with the EU - seen as a key step towards eventual EU membership - raised the hackles of Russia, which retaliated by banning the import of certain Ukrainian products. The government&#039;s decision to abandon the association agreement in November 2013 brought tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets of Kiev, accusing the president of bowing to Russian pressure.</p>
President > Summary	President Plevneliev has overseen several changes of government	President Yanukovych says he aims to balance Ukraine&#039;s ties between Russia and Europe
Prime minister	Plamen Oresharski	Mykola Azarov (resigned)
Prime minister > Profile	<p>Plamen Oresharski was confirmed new prime minister at the head of a Socialist-backed technocrat government in May 2013, ending months of political impasse. </p> <p>Bulgaria had been without a permanent administration since the previous February, when street protests against low living standards toppled a government led by the centre-right GERB party.</p> <p>Mr Oresharski, a professor of finance at Sofia&#039;s University for National and World Economy, was put forward by the Socialists as a Bulgarian version of Italy&#039;s respected former technocrat prime minister Mario Monti, after snap elections.</p> <p>Former premier Boyko Borisov&#039;s GERB party, which won the vote, had failed to find partners to govern, leaving the second-placed Socialists to name a new prime minister.</p> <p>Assuming office, Mr Oresharski warned that Bulgaria is &quot;in a deep institutional crisis, continuing economic depression and worsening disintegration of society&quot;.</p> <p>But as Oresharski&#039;s government quickly lost support amid allegations of corrupt ties with business groups, anti-government protests continued.</p> <p>Protesters&#039; anger against Mr Oresharski&#039;s government were inflamed by the appointment - later reversed by parliament - of controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski as head the national security agency. Some accuse the cabinet of being backed by a &quot;Red Mafia&quot;.</p> <p>A finance minister in a Socialist-led coalition between 2005 and 2009, Mr Oresharski won praise for implementing a key reform in Bulgaria&#039;s taxation system.</p> <p>He was also part of the team that oversaw the introduction of an IMF-led currency board regime in 1997 - pegging the national currency, the lev, to the euro at a fixed rate - that stabilised the economy and is still in place.</p>	<p>Mykola Azarov resigned as prime minister amid mass protests in January 2014. </p> <p>President Yanukovych accepted his resignation and that of his cabinet, but asked them to stay on until a new government is formed. It follows a vote by MPs to scrap controversial new laws limiting the rights of demonstrators, which sparked violence when they were introduced.</p> <p>Mr Azarov, an ethnic Russian born in Russia, is a close associate of President Yanukovych and succeeded him as head of the Party of Regions in 2010. After the government of Mr Yanukovych&#039;s chief rival, Yuliya Tymoshenko, fell in a vote of confidence in March 2010, Mr Azarov formed a coalition with the Communists and the centrist Lytvyn Bloc.</p> <p>Mr Azarov was head of the tax administration in 1996-2002, and his term as finance minister during Mr Yanukovych&#039;s subsequent premiership oversaw dramatic economic growth.</p> <p>He was briefly acting prime minister during the presidential election crisis of 2004-2005, and resumed the post of finance minister during the Yanukovych government of 2006-2007.</p> <p>A mining specialist, Mr Azarov is a technocrat with neither a political base nor ambitions of his own. His poor command of Ukrainian is often highlighted by his opponents, who see him as a symbol of Mr Yanukovych&#039;s alleged pro-Russian orientation.</p> <p>Ukraine&#039;s economy has stagnated under the premiership of Mr Azarov. He has refused to cut expensive gas subsidies, which the IMF says are a block on any further loans. Negotiations with Russia on the price of gas have made little progress, and plans to forge closer ties with the European Union foundered in November 2013 when, after much prevarication, the government decided against signing a free-trade agreement.</p>
Prime minister > Summary	Plamen Oresharski became prime minister in the midst of a severe crisis	Mykola Azarov resigned at a time of unrest

15 30 60 All

APA MLA MHRA CSE AMA Chicago Bluebook Bluebook/JOLT Citation