Yevhen Marchuk

(Gen. Ret.) Yevhen K. Marchuk (Євген Кирилович Марчук), born on January 28, 1941, is a Ukrainian statesman and politician. During his career, Marchuk was prime minister of Ukraine, presidential candidate, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Defense Minister of Ukraine. Marchuk is affiliated with the Ukrainian Den newspaper, edited by his wife. He has been a general in the Army of Ukraine since March 23, 1994.

Biography
Yevhen Marchuk was born soon before World War II into a peasant family in Central Ukraine. In 1963, upon graduation from the Kirovohrad Pedagogical Institute, Marchuk was recruited by the KGB and steadily rose through the ranks of that organization. As an operative officer he served first in Kirovohrad Oblast, then in the republican KGB branch in Kiev as an intelligence and secret service officer, for a total of 31 years of service. Marchuk has admitted specializing in secret police functions. However, he claims to have been a humane lawful agent, secretly protecting some Ukrainian dissidents from harsh persecution.

In the early 1990s, Marchuk was one of the first high-level KGB officers who appeared to be loyal to the newly established Ukrainian independence and was one of the reformers of the Ukrainian Secret Service (later SBU) serving as the first Chief of SBU. At first he was appointed the Ukrainian SSR Minister of National Security and Defence. That position held no actual power since local KGB, militsiya, and the army were still subordinated to Moscow until 1991. The Soviet Union then collapsed, ending Marchuk’s service to the KGB, and he was able to participate fully in the Ukrainian independent government. He headed the SBU until 1994.

After the 1994 parliamentary elections, Marchuk became head of the liberal Social Market Choice faction, whose members included former President Kravchuk. Marchuk was appointed the acting Prime minister of Ukraine on March 1, 1995, holding the position of the first vice-Premier Minister in the cabinet of Vitaliy Masol. He was later promoted to the position of the Premier Minister on June 8, 1995. He formed his cabinet, which was confirmed on July 3, 1995. After being elected to the Verkhovna Rada (December 1995), he resigned on May 27, 1996. Marchuk and Kravchuk became members of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) before the 1998 elections. From April to December 1998 he was the leader of the party. From July 1998 Marchuk headed a parliamentary committee in Social Policy and Labor.

When the SDPU(u) refused to back Marchuk in the 1999 presidential elections, he left to create his own Social Democratic Union. He ran as an independent in the 1999 presidential election, coming in fifth place with 8.13% of the vote in the first tour of the elections, and was appointed secretary of the National Security and Defense Council by the re-elected President Leonid Kuchma. Marchuk was secretary of the National Security and Defense Council from November 10, 1999, to June 25, 2003 (till June 2009 he stayed on as chairperson of the council's interagency commission on information policy). Later, he was the Defense Minister of Ukraine from June 2003 to September 2004.

During the 2006 parliamentary elections Marchuk lead the electoral alliance (Electoral Bloc "Yevhen Marchuk" - "Unity") (including his own party, Party of Freedom) which didn't make it into parliament, winning only 0.06% of the votes.

Controversy
On December 6, 2001, the Italian prosecutor's office accused Marchuk of violating the UN embargo on supplying arms to various parts of the world. The accusations remained, never investigated nor prosecuted.

Recent career developments
In May 2008, Marchuk was appointed one of the personal advisors to President Yushchenko.