Hennadiy Viktorovych Balashov ( uk, Геннадій Вікторович Балашов, born 20 February 1961,
Dnipro
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
,
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
) is a Ukrainian businessman, blogger, politician and leader of
5.10
5.10 is a Ukrainian political party, registered on 20 March 2014. The main idea of Hennadiy Balashov and his libertarian party is a radical reform of the taxation of Ukraine: full abolition of the current system and introduction of a single tax ...
political party. He is an advocate of a radical reform of Ukraine's tax system, so-called "Tax Paradise for humanity".
Biography
During
Euromaidan
Euromaidan (; uk, Євромайдан, translit=Yevromaidan, lit=Euro Square, ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protes ...
events, Balashov sided with the protesters and was actively campaigning for his ideas, calling for the introduction of 5.10 system. At the beginning of March, as the crisis in Crimea was deepening, he travelled to
Simferopol
Simferopol () is the second-largest city in the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, ...
, but was kidnapped by allegedly local self-defense forces. Upon his release and return to Kyiv, Balashov said that he was kidnapped, robbed and was being beaten for eight hours by local bandits.
2014 Ukrainian presidential election
In the early elections of the President of
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
in 2014, Gennadiy Balashov and his party "5.10" supported
Petro Poroshenko
Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko ser ...
in order not to let
Yulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( uk, Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко, ; Hrihyan ();CEC for registration. Balashov pledged to add the rest of his own money.
On 15 January, registration documents were submitted to the CEC. On 18 January, the CEC approved the candidate.
Family
Balashov has a wife and three children – daughters Julia, Daria and son Gennady.Геннадий Балашов: «На „раскрутку“ партии мы потратили 700 тысяч долларов, а теперь я деньги лекциями зарабатываю» 12 August 2012
Scandals
Criminal Case
On January 22, 2021, the National Police of Ukraine opened a criminal case against Balashov as he received funds totaling $28,000 as an investment in the construction of an elite apartment building. However, after the house was built, he did not give the investors their funds, but instead began to lease the premises of the house for office rent.
Illegal construction in the UNESCO protected zone
The erection of a house by Balashov in the buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "St. Sophia Cathedral and Adjacent Monasteries, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" caused a high resonance in society. Architects and archaeologists, including a representative of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, said that Balashov built his house with numerous violations, which gives UNESCO the full right to exclude the Cathedral of St. Sophia and the adjacent monastic structures, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra from the list of World Heritage Sites.
Language Statements
During the discussion of the Ukrainian language legislature at one of the all-Ukrainian TV channels, Balashov said that he spoke Russian out of principle
Bibliography
* "How to become an adventurer. Reflections of a millionaire "(2011)
* "The monarchy of the entrepreneur. How to become king? "(2014)