Viktor Pinzenik

Date of Birth: 15.04.1954

Place of Birth. Education. Born in the village of Smologovitsa, Irschava district, Transcarpathia region. In 1975 he graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Lviv University named after Franko. In 1989 he began his PhD studies in Economics at Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Career. From 1975 to 1981, Pinzenik was an assistant, from 1981 to 1987 he was a lecturer, from 1987 to 1989 he was a senior researcher, and since 1990 he has been a professor, and from 1991 to 1992 he was the head of the Department of Economics and Management of the Faculty of Economics at Lviv University.

Since December 1991, he has been a member of the Ukrainian Parliament of the first convocation, a member of the Committee on Economic Reforms and Economic Management.

In October 1992 he became the Minister of Economy of Ukraine and held the rank of Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs. Since September 1993, he has been the Chairman of the Ukrainian Fund for Reform Support.

In March 1994, Pinzenik was elected for the second time to the Ukrainian Parliament. His parliamentary membership from October 1994 to August 1995 coincided with the position of First Deputy Prime Minister. He then served as Deputy Prime Minister until April 1997.

In October 1997, the Ministry of Justice registered the newly formed center-right Reform and Order Party (ROP). The political leader of this force was the former Deputy Prime Minister Pinzenik.

From 1998 to 2002, he was a member of the Verkhovna Rada of the third parliament, headed the ROP-Reform Center faction, and was a member of the Finance and Banking Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.

In 2002, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada of the fourth parliament on the list of the Viktor Yushchenko bloc Our Ukraine (No. 5 on the list) and was one of the initiators of the formation of this political alliance. He was a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance and Banking and held the position of First Deputy Chairman of the Our Ukraine faction. During the 'Orange Revolution', he actively supported the opposition presidential candidate.

From December 2005 to August 2006, Pinzenik served as Minister of Finance in both 'orange' governments - of Yulia Tymoshenko and later of Yuriy Yekhanurov.

In the 2006 parliamentary elections, ROP participated in the alliance with the Civic Party Block PORA (No. 1 on the list - the famous boxer Vitali Klitschko). The political force failed to overcome the 3 percent threshold. After the election defeat and resignation from the government, Pinzenik worked for over a year in the extra-parliamentary opposition.

In the snap parliamentary elections of 2007, ROP joined the ranks of Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc. According to the party quota, some of the most respected representatives of the 'reformers' received parliamentary mandates. Among them (for the fifth time) - Pinzenik.

On December 18, 2007, he was appointed Minister of Finance in the second Tymoshenko government.

On February 17, 2009, the Ukrainian Parliament accepted Pinzenik's resignation letter from the position of Minister of Finance.

Since January 2011, he has been the Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of JSC Ukrsibbank.

From December 2012 to November 2014, he was a deputy of the VII convocation of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada for the UDAR party (No. 7 on the list). Deputy faction leader of UDAR in parliament. Member of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Economic Policy. Non-partisan.

At the time of his election, he was the chief advisor to the director of the Barvinok LLC trading network.

From October 2014 to August 2019, he was a deputy of Ukraine of the VIII convocation for the Petro Poroshenko bloc (No. 17). Member of the Parliamentary Committee on the Budget.

Views and Evaluations. After the 2006 parliamentary elections and the formation of the so-called Anti-Crisis Coalition, the politician accused the government of Viktor Yanukovych of being unable to curb inflation and concealing the true causes of economic problems through embellishments of macroeconomic indicators (for example, 'unjustified foreign loans and speculation caused by inflation fears, especially through statements about the lack of grain'). He was known as a declared opponent of the former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

Awards. Honorary Doctor of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ternopil Academy of National Economy. Honored Economist of Ukraine. Doctor of Economic Sciences.

Scientific Activity. Pinzenik is the author of several hundred articles. He has written books 'Material Incentives for Increasing Work Quality' (1985), 'Prices and Product Quality of Industrial-Technical Products' (1988), 'Alphabet of Complete Economic Accounting' (1991), 'The Horses are Not to Blame, or Reforms or Their Imitation' (1998, 1999).

Family. Pinzenik is married. His wife Maria is an economist. The politician has two daughters - Olga (1981) and Yulia (1989) and two sons - Vladimir (1993) and Vitaliy (2007).

15.04.2022