Alexei Kostusev

Biography of Alexei Kostusev

Date of Birth: 29.06.1954

Place of Birth. Education. Born in the city of Nevelsk on Sakhalin. In 1975 he graduated from the Odessa Institute of National Economy. Honored Economist of Ukraine. Doctor of Economic Sciences.

Career. At various times, he was the head of the department at the Odessa Institute of Engineers of the Merchant Marine, head of the department for new organizational forms, and deputy chairman of the executive committee of the Kirovo district in Odessa, chairman of the Odessa City Committee on Privatization Issues. He was elected as a People's Deputy of Ukraine for the III term (on the list of the 'SPU-SelPU' block). At the time of the elections, he worked as chief economist of the joint venture 'Iren'. In the Supreme Council, he headed the Committee on Economic Policy, Management of the Economy, Property, and Investments from February 2000.

In June 2001, President Leonid Kuchma appointed Alexei Kostusev as the chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMKU), which he chaired for 7 years.

Since 2004, he has been the chairman of the Interstate Council for Competition Policy of the CIS member states.

The political sympathies of Alexei Kostusev changed several times. After receiving the mandate as a deputy with the help of the 'SPU-SelPU' block, he joined the deputy group of the Labor Party in parliament and became a member of the party and its political bureau. In October 2004, Alexei Kostusev took command of the Union Party, which, according to the head of AMKU, involved deputies and prominent businessmen Lev Mirimski and Vasily Khmelnytskyi, who then appeared on the election list and faction of BYuT. In an interview, Kostusev stated that the party, under his leadership, would run independently in the parliamentary elections of 2006. However, in December 2005, he left the Union, joined the Party of Regions, and even became a member of the Presidium of the Political Council of the Party of Regions.

In the spring of 2006, Alexei Kostusev again ran as a candidate of the Party of Regions in parliament. After the formation of an Anti-Crisis Coalition and a government led by the leader of the 'Regions', Viktor Yanukovych, he accepted the offer to become chairman of AMKU again, where he was not very comfortable after the 'Orange Revolution'. Alexei Kostusev even claimed that they wanted to 'throw' him out of office in any case, for which a comprehensive inspection by the General Prosecutor's Office was organized.

As chairman of the committee, he held various positions at state and interstate levels. Among other things, he was a member of the Interdepartmental Commission for Information Policy and Information Security at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, an official representative of Ukraine in the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Policy and Legislation of UNCTAD, a member of the Council for Cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union, a member of the Ukrainian-American Commission for Economic Cooperation, and a member of the Ukrainian-French Commission for Economic Cooperation.

The AMKU under the leadership of Alexei Kostusev has, at various times, fought more or less successfully against price increases for gasoline, meat, and bread, railway transport costs, and tariffs for communal services. The head of the committee considered the reduction of costs for Western Union services for money transfers from abroad to Ukraine one of his 'colossal' victories.

In the early parliamentary elections of 2007, he was elected as a deputy to the Verkhovna Rada under No. 30 on the list of the Party of Regions. He chaired the Subcommittee on Economic Competition and Competition Policy of the Economic Policy Committee. For more than half a year, he combined the deputy mandate with the position of AMKU chairman. In June 2008, the government under Yulia Tymoshenko appointed Alexander Melnytsenko, who was previously Kostusev's first deputy, as the acting chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee.

On April 1, 2010, after Viktor Yanukovych won the presidential elections and formed the government of Mykola Azarov, Alexei Kostusev returned to the position of AMKU chairman. After being elected as the mayor of Odessa on October 31, Alexei Kostusev decided to resign from the committee on December 14.

On October 31, 2013, Alexei Kostusev submitted his resignation as mayor of Odessa. The dismissal was accepted at an extraordinary session of the Odessa City Council on November 4, 2013.

Awards. Alexei Kostusev was awarded the Order of Merit of III and II degrees, the Order of Prince Vladimir the Equal-to-the-Apostles of II and III degrees.

Scientific Work and Hobbies. Alexei Kostusev is the author of more than 150 scientific and methodological works, including the monographs 'Politics and Political Science' (1998) and 'Competition Policy in Ukraine' (2004).

He is interested in history.

Family. Wife Irina Vasilievna (1965) - engineer, son Goncharenko Alexei - deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the VIII convocation, daughter Viola (1988).

28.06.2022