Davidschwania
Date of Birth: 20.07.1967
Place of Birth. Education. Born in Tbilisi, in one of the respected Georgian families. In 1991, he graduated from the Faculty of Economic Planning of Tbilisi University with a degree in Economics. According to the politician, he has been living and working in Ukraine since 1991 and has been a Ukrainian citizen since 1999.
From Business to Politics. According to various sources, Schwania, along with his party colleague and fellow countryman Nikolai Martynenko, was involved in the establishment of the trading house. In 1998, he became the president of Brinkford Cons. (Ukraine) Limited, which supplied Russian nuclear fuel to Ukrainian nuclear power plants. In 2001, he took the position of chairman of Brinkford AG. This structure was his last workplace before entering the Verkhovna Rada.
In 2002, he was elected as a deputy according to the list of the Our Ukraine block (he took the 33rd place). At the time of the elections, he was not a member of any party. Later, he joined the ranks of the National Union Our Ukraine party and became a member of the party's political council.
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During the 2004 presidential campaign, Schwania was entrusted with the position of deputy chief of staff of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. At that time, he was one of the closest aides to the former Prime Minister and head of the National Bank and was even the godfather of Yushchenko's younger son, Taras. Schwania's name was often mentioned in connection with the poisoning of the future president, as he was present at the famous dinner of Yushchenko with the heads of the SBU and was allegedly among the organizers of this meeting.
From February to September 2005, he served as the Minister for Emergency Situations in the government of Yulia Tymoshenko. Due to journalists, he acquired the mocking nickname 'Ukrainian Shoigu' in this position. He advocated for the creation of a powerful rescue service similar to the American '911'. However, during his tenure at the Ministry of Emergency Situations, he failed to carry out radical reforms. With the resignation of the first Tymoshenko government, Schwania was replaced as head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations by Viktor Baloga.
After his resignation as minister, he was elected deputy three more times. In 2006 - according to the list of the Our Ukraine block. In the early parliamentary elections of 2007 - from the Our Ukraine - People's Defense block.
In June 2010, he joined the Stability and Reforms coalition formed by the Party of Regions, the CPU, and the Litvin block. A few days later, he formed a deputy group Right to Choose. It was not long before he joined the party of the Christian Democratic Alliance of Volodymyr Stretovych and announced that the Right to Choose group would be renamed to the group of the Christian Democratic Alliance, which would be transformed into a parliamentary faction by the next local elections.
From December 2012 to November 2014, he was a deputy of the Parliament of Ukraine of the VII Congress, running as an Independent in electoral district No. 140 in the Odessa region. Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on State Building and Local Self-Government. Member of the Party of Regions faction. Not affiliated with any party.
After the suppression of protests on Euro-Maidan on the night of November 29-30, 2013, he announced his resignation from the Party of Regions faction.
In the early parliamentary elections of 2014, Davidschwania ran in District 140 of the Odessa region, where he won two years earlier as a candidate of the ruling party - as a candidate of the PR. This time, however, he lost to the independent Vasyl Gulyaev.
Scandals. Although Schwania was one of the long-standing and significant sponsors of Our Ukraine and Yushchenko's election campaign, he was only assigned the 69th place on the list of the block in the 2006 elections. The reason for stepping back was the scandal during which accusations were made against the close circle of the president for corruption and abuse of power. At Tymoshenko's initiative, the politician found himself in the company of the 'dear friends' of the president, who were also blamed, among other things, for the collapse of the 'orange' coalition of 2004-2005. In turn, Schwania accused Lady Yu of various sins. Thus, according to a former cabinet member, Tymoshenko did not plan to separate from the gas supply scheme of Ukraine involving RosUkrEnergo, but only intended to replace this trader with Itera, which was close to her. However, the tensions between the politicians eased after a few years.
In the 2006 elections, Our Ukraine had to deny allegations that the controversial and scandalous Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky was linked to the financing of Yushchenko’s election campaign. Schwania himself had to convince the public that there was no financing or his personal mediation was involved. Sometimes the form of persuasion was downright scandalous. 'Buying a stinker like Berezovsky in London is cheap,' said the politician on a TV show.
In November 2006, the politician left the ranks of UNSU. 'Today, Our Ukraine cannot represent where and how to move...', said the then-deputy. Schwania planned, according to his own words, to remain in the party if it can mobilize and make strategic decisions, which, however, did not happen. After that, he took an active part (including financially) in the founding and promotion of a new political project - People's Defense, whose leader at that time was the former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko.
In May 2008, the President of Yushchenko's secretariat and the Prosecutor General unexpectedly initiated an investigation into the circumstances under which Schwania received Ukrainian citizenship in the early 1990s. Allegedly, false data was intentionally provided during the application for the documents under the instructions of the Georgian businessman. Schwania labeled the investigation as political revenge. He questioned the fact of Yushchenko's poisoning, which had already been firmly entrenched in society's consciousness. He also labeled the high-ranking godfather a traitor to the ideals of the Maidan and his secretariat, led by Baloga, a bastion of lawlessness that helped to form a coalition of the Party of Regions, the Social Party, and the CPU.
At the same time as Schwania, the Interior Minister and the head of People's Defense Lutsenko faced legal issues. According to some experts, the lives of the leaders of 'Self-Defense' were complicated by the fact that this wing of the pro-presidential block Uns had closed itself to following the course set by President Yushchenko's secretariat, and cooperation with Tymoshenko's block had radically taken shape from the bank's point of view.
About income and sources. Schwania does not consider himself an oligarch (for him, this word is almost an insult), although he does not hide that he is quite wealthy. According to the politician's declaration for 2003, published on the website Ukrayinska Pravda, his family owns a collection of expensive foreign cars, including Porsche, Mercedes, Jaguar, BMW.
According to Business magazine, Schwania has connections to several economic structures: Brinkford, the Kerch shipyard, the Lugansk machine engineering plant, the Lugansk ammunition plant, Diamond Bank, etc. Although Schwania claims that he was never the owner of companies but an 'effective manager' who received decent bonuses for his performance.
In 2006, 2007, and 2008, Schwania was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in Ukraine by Korrespondent and Focus magazines.
In 2011, he ranked 106th in Focus magazine's ranking of the '200 richest people in Ukraine'. The magazine's experts estimated the politician's fortune at 110 million dollars. In 2013, Focus estimated Schwania's fortune at 83 million dollars (127th place in the ranking of the '200 richest people in Ukraine').
Honors. On August 24, 2013, Davidschwania was awarded the Order 'For Merit' of the III Class.
Family. Davidschwania is married and has four children. His wife is Oksana. In marriage, they are raising three daughters - Anna, Diana, Sophia, and a son David.
Death. On May 9, 2022, Davidschwania died at a checkpoint under fire near the village of Selo Belohorye in the Pologovsky district of Zaporizhzhia region. His car exploded due to a direct hit from a grenade.
10.05.2022