Semeniuk-Samsonenko Valentina

Date of Birth: 04.06.1957

Place of Birth. Education. Born in the village of Saretschje in the Ruschyn District of the Zhytomyr region. In 1982, she graduated from the Zhytomyr Agricultural Institute with a degree as an 'Economist-Organizer of Agricultural Production'. In 1999, she obtained a degree from the National Law Academy of Ukraine named after Yaroslav the Wise.

Career. The future politician and head of the State Property Fund began her career in 1974 as a clerk in the Soviet of Ruschyn, led the drama group of the local cultural house. From 1977 to 1982, she was engaged in communist work and her studies at the institute. After her first degree, she went into the Soviet planned economy: she worked as an accountant, senior accountant in the centralized accounting of the agricultural administration, senior and chief economist of the planning commission of the Ruschyn district. In the last year of the USSR, she was the secretary of the district committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU).

From 1991 to 1994, V. Semeniuk was the chief economist of the district plan, deputy head of the socio-economic department of the Ruschyn district state administration. Since September 1993, she served as the first secretary of the district party committee of Ruschyn, no longer of the Soviet, but of the Ukrainian Communist Party.

In 1994, Valentina Semeniuk won the parliamentary elections as a candidate of the CPU in her constituency and became a member of the Ukrainian Parliament for the first time. She took the position of secretary of the Parliament Committee on Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Social Development of Rural Areas. In Parliament, she switched from the CPU faction to the Unity of the Socialist Party of Ukraine and joined the Socialist Party. Since then, she has remained a socialist, one of the leading figures of the party and a close associate of the party chairman of the Socialist Party, parliamentary speaker Alexander Moroz.

After being elected on the Socialist Party list, Valentina Semeniuk went to Parliament three more times - in 1998, 2002 (during the IV convocation, she led the faction of the Socialist Party of Ukraine and the special control committee on privatization issues) and in 2006.

In 2001, she actively participated in the 'Ukraine without Kuchma' campaign. Later, in 2004, she was involved in the 'Orange Revolution'. She became well-known among Ukrainians due to her frequent (as far as possible for the opposition at that time) and harsh criticism of the regime of Leonid Kuchma.

After Viktor Yushchenko's victory in the presidential election, Valentina Semeniuk was appointed head of the State Property Fund in April 2005 due to the share of the Socialist Party. After the parliamentary elections in 2006, Valentina Semeniuk again preferred the position of head of the State Property Fund over work in Parliament and declined the deputy mandate.

On December 26, 2008, the Ukrainian Parliament dismissed Valentina Semeniuk-Samsonenko from her position as chair of the State Property Fund of Ukraine by its own decision.

Views and Evaluations. In the autumn of 2005, the Fund carried out the most sensational reprivatization action in the history of Ukraine. The Kryvyi Rih Steel Plant, the jewel of domestic metallurgy, which was bought in the summer of 2004 by the owner of the SCM company Rinat Akhmetov and Viktor Pinchuk, the owner of the Interpipe group and son-in-law of President Leonid Kuchma, for $803 million, returned to state ownership. Subsequently, the largest (in money terms) and most scandalous (with live broadcasting on television) sale of state property in the history of Ukrainian privatization took place. A 93-percent share package of the Kryvyi Rih Steel Plant was purchased at auction by Mittal Steel for $4.8 billion. Representatives of the Socialist Party in Parliament voted against the re-sale of metallurgy. As a socialist, Valentina Semeniuk was also not an enthusiastic supporter of this deal. After the sale, she repeatedly stated that the investor did not fulfill the terms of the contract, therefore the Kryvyi Rih Steel should return to state ownership.

In an interview regarding her views on privatization, she insists that strategic enterprises should remain under state control and generate revenue for the budget. Commenting on the plans of the Yanukovych government in 2007 to sell state property worth 10 billion hryvnias, Valentina Semeniuk complained: 'The total book value of all remaining state assets is 28 billion. If another 10 billion is sold, what will be left?'

However, the chairmanship of the Fund requires, unlike party membership, that Valentina Semeniuk 'handles' state property. To keep everything fair, she promised the Ukrainians that in the future she would also hold exciting privatization shows. In particular, she intends to sell large share packages of companies such as Ukrtelecom and the Odessa Port Plant. However, the 'warm-ups' at smaller facilities like Lugansteglows and the Komsomolsky Rudnoye Management were not examples of transparency. According to Viktor Yushchenko, the sale of share packages of these companies indicates the rooting of the practice of 'kitchen privatization' of state property.

On January 10, 2008, the Supreme Court of Ukraine ruled that the privatization of Lugansteglows was illegal. The head of the Fund called the campaign to revoke the plant's privatization 'political murder and political order'.

Nevertheless, just a few days later, Valentina Semeniuk attracted even more attention from journalists and the general public, not because of a privatization scandal, but because of the announcement of her wedding scheduled for January 19.

Winter and Spring 2008 were marked for Valentina Semeniuk by a series of attacks from Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her bloc. The head of the Fund was confronted with a torrent of accusations that she committed unprofessional and illegal acts. The government's offer to write a resignation letter 'voluntarily' was firmly rejected. She reacted to the accusations with counterattacks and accusations. The verbal sparring ended on February 6 with a cabinet decision to dismiss Valentina Semeniuk from her duties and appoint the first deputy chair - the deputy chair of the Fund, BYuT representative Andriy Portnov. In addition, the government initiated an official investigation against the disgraced head of the Fund.

Given the nature and mood of a socialist forged in political struggles, she decided not to yield without a fight. On the same day, she declared that she considered the attempt to remove her from office illegal and that she would not vacate the office. 'The protection in the State Property Fund is reliable,' emphasized Valentina Semeniuk. On February 7, the president invalidated the cabinet decision and initiated the examination of the government's document in the Constitutional Court. Subsequently, Semeniuk supported the president in prohibiting the sale of the Odessa Port Plant initiated by the Prime Minister.

On December 26, 2008, the Ukrainian Parliament dismissed Valentina Semeniuk-Samsonenko from her position as chair of the State Property Fund by decision, thereby putting an end to the described discussion.

Family. In 1995, she became a widow. She raised two daughters alone. Her new partner was Vitali Samsonenko - a Kyiv businessman, co-owner of the 'Samson Insurance Company'. His name is also associated with companies such as 'Leader-Credit' and 'Express-Credit', which specialize in insurance and loans. According to information from the newspaper 'Blick', the businessman's fortune is estimated at $40 million. On the day of the wedding, Valentina Semeniuk took the name Semeniuk-Samsonenko.

Awards. Semeniuk is a deserved economist of Ukraine.

Death. On August 27, 2014, Valentina Semeniuk-Samsonenko was found dead in her house in the village of Chaika in the Kyiv region. 'The shot was fired from a hunting weapon to the head,' the Interior Ministry said. Law enforcement agencies are also considering the version of suicide. However, colleagues of the former chair of the Fund do not believe in the version of suicide.

28.08.2014