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Roman Zvarych

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In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Mykhailovych and the family name is Zvarych.

Roman Zvarych
Роман Зварич
Zvarych in 2006
7th and 9th Minister of Justice of Ukraine
In office
4 August 2006 – 1 November 2006
PresidentViktor Yushchenko
Prime MinisterViktor Yanukovych
Preceded bySerhiy Holovatyi
Succeeded byOleksandr Lavrynovych
In office
4 February 2005 – 27 September 2005
PresidentViktor Yushchenko
Prime MinisterYulia Tymoshenko
Preceded byOleksandr Lavrynovych
Succeeded bySerhiy Holovatyi
Personal details
Born (1953-11-20) 20 November 1953 (age 70)
Yonkers, New York, United States
Political partyCongress of Ukrainian Nationalists

Roman Mykhailovych Zvarych (Ukrainian: Роман Михайлович Зварич; born 20 November 1953) is a Ukrainian politician. A former United States citizen, he was one of the first people to relinquish that citizenship in order to take up Ukrainian citizenship after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[1]

Early life

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Zvarych was born in Yonkers, New York to Soviet émigré parents who came to the United States during World War II.[1] In later interviews, he says that at age fifteen he swore an oath to "achieve Ukrainian statehood or ... die fighting for it".[2] In 1976 he earned a B.A. with honors from Manhattan College in Bronx, New York.[3]

Emigration to Ukraine and political career

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Zvarych moved to Ukraine in 1991 with the intention of pursuing an academic career, but soon after became involved in politics.[2] In 1992, he and Slava Stetsko founded the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, a right-wing party.[4] He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1995.[5] Along with fellow politician Ivan Lozowy this made him one of the first former Americans to renounce U.S. citizenship in favour of Ukrainian citizenship.[1] A notification confirming his loss of citizenship appeared in the Federal Register in June 1997 with his name listed as "Roman Mychajlo Zwarycz".[6]

Zwarych ran for a seat in the 1994 election for a single-mandate seat representing a district of Kyiv in the Verkhovna Rada, and received 70% of the vote but was not elected due to his failure to meet the voter turnout threshold of 50% mandated by the electoral law at the time. He was eventually elected in the 1998 election from a party-list proportional district.[1] Thereafter he sat in the Verkhovna Rada for six years, serving on various committees including the Committee on Legal Reform and the Committee on European Integration. Outside of the Verkhovna Rada he also moonlighted as a lawyer; Ukrainian courts had no requirement for practitioners of law to hold certifications or pass a bar examination. On one occasion Zvarych successfully defended a family against eviction. More importantly, during the Orange Revolution in the midst of the 2004 presidential election, he successfully argued a case on behalf of Viktor Yushchenko to prevent the creation of Ukrainian voting districts for Ukrainians in Russia.[2]

In the spring of 2005, Ukrainian Pravda published an article alleging that the minister had not been a professor at Columbia University, had not authored scientific papers, and did not receive a diploma from the university as was stated in his official biographies.

Then in an exclusive interview with The Ukrainian Weekly Roman Zvarych admitted that he had not received a masters or a doctoral degree from Columbia University, nor had he attained the rank of professor at New York University. And unfortunately he had no formal legal education, either.

Columbia University confirmed that Roman Zvarych had not received a document of completion of higher education from them. Nor was the publication able to obtain confirmation from Manhattan College, where, according to Zvarych, he had received a bachelor’s degree. New York University spokesperson Josh Taylor told The Ukrainian Weekly that Zvarych had been "a part-time lecturer" in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies from 1989 to 1991, i.e., not for eight years but for two. Teaching evening continuing education classes is a very common way in New York for businessmen and other non-academic people to acquire an academic gloss.

As his basis for aspiring to the position of Ukraine's Justice Minister, Zvarych said that he had served as a deputy in the country's legislative assembly for 6 years, and that gave him "considerable legal expertise." In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Zvarych was a candidate of Petro Poroshenko Bloc; placed 82nd on the electoral list.[7] But the party only won 63 seats on the electoral list; hence he was not (re-)elected into parliament.[8] But he returned to parliament nevertheless on 15 March 2018 to take the place of Valery Pakzkan who was just elected head of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine.[9]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Woronowycz, Roman (24 May 1998). "Roman Zvarych, former New Yorker, now Ukrainian parliamentarian". The Ukrainian Weekly. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  2. ^ a b c Zawada, Zenon (15 May 2005). "Zvarych sees campaign to force his resignation, suspects diaspora, others". The Ukrainian Weekly. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  3. ^ Zawada, Zenon (8 May 2005). "Yushchenko administration's first 100 days incorporate promises made on maidan". The Ukrainian Weekly. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 23 February 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. ^ Wilson, Andrew (1996). Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990s: A Minority Faith. Cambridge University Press. p. 197. ISBN 0521574579.
  5. ^ Kuzio, Taras (4 May 2005). "More problems for Yushchenko government as Justice Minister caught exaggerating his academic record". Eurasia Daily Monitor. Vol. 2, no. 87. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  6. ^ Doug Rogers, Internal Revenue Service (22 July 1997). "Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen to Expatriate, As Required by Section 6039(f)". Federal Register. 69: 39305. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  7. ^ Party list of Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Ukrayinska Pravda (September 19, 2014)
  8. ^ Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament, Ukrinform (8 November 2014)
    People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
    Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
  9. ^ "Стало відомо, хто прийде у Раду замість Пацкана і Денисової".
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