Vasyl Heorhiyovych Dzharty ( uk, Василь Георгійович Джарти; 3 June 1958 – 17 August 2011) was a Ukrainian politician who served as

Prime Minister of Crimea The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea is the head of government of the Republic of Crimea (previously the Autonomous Republic of Crimea The Autonomous Republic of Crimea, commonly known as Crimea, is a de ju ...

from 17 March 2010 until his death in August 2011.

Early life and career

Dzharty was born in 1958, in Rozdolne, a village in the Starobesheve district of

Donetsk Oblast The Donetsk Oblast ( ukr, Донецька область, Donetska oblast, ), also referred to as Donechchyna ( ukr, Донеччина, links=no), is an oblast of eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 mill ...

in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. His father was a

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

. He completed his studies at

Donetsk Polytechnic Institute Donetsk National Technical University (DonNTU, formerly Donetsk Polytechnic Institute and other names) is the biggest and oldest higher education establishment in Donbas, founded in 1921. In its early years, it was attended by Nikita Khrushchev ...

. He then obtained a master's degree from Donetsk National Technical University in public administration.

Political career

Dzharty served as the

's first deputy governor. He then became Mayor of Makiivka, a city in the

of Ukraine. He was elected to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's national parliament, serving during its fifth and sixth sessions as a member of the Party of Regions. From 2006 to 2007, Dzharty served as Ukraine's Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources.

Prime Minister of Crimea

Dzharty became the

on 17 March 2010, succeeding outgoing Prime Minister

Viktor Plakida Viktor Tarasovych Plakida (born 2 August 1956) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician and businessman. Plakida served as the Prime Minister of Crimea, an autonomous region in southern Ukraine, from 2006 to 2010 (the office of Prime Minister is also ...

. The Speaker of the Supreme Council of Crimea,

Volodymyr Konstantinov Vladimir Andreyevich Konstantinov (russian: Влади́мир Андре́евич Константи́нов, uk, Володимир Андрійович Константинов; born November 19, 1956) is a Crimean and Russian politician wh ...

, had nominated Dzharty, a member of the Party of Regions, as Crimea's next prime minister and chairman of the council of ministers. As required by the Ukrainian Constitution, the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, had to personally approve of Dzharty's nomination, which he did. The Supreme Council of Crimea, which acts as Crimea's parliament, overwhelmingly approved Dzharty's nomination on March 17, 2011. 82 out of the 89 members of the Crimean parliament voted in favor of Dzharty's appointment as Prime Minister. Dzharty simultaneously served as chairman of the Crimean branch of the Party of Regions. Dzharty was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2010. He sought treatment for the disease in Ukraine, Germany and Russia. Dzharty died from lung cancer in Yalta on August 17, 2011, at the age of 53. He was interred at Kozatske cemetery in the city of Makiivka,

, Ukraine, on August 18, 2011. A memorial service was also held in Simferopol. On November 7, 2011 President Viktor Yanukovych appointed Anatolii Mohyliov as his successor as Prime Minister of Crimea.Yanukovych appoints Mohyliov to Crimean post
Kyiv Post (7 November 2011)

Accusations of criminal activity

According to the Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko, in the 1990s Dzharty headed the Makiivka gang and was known in a criminal world as "Vasia the Bat" for his proficiency with a baseball bat in

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dzharty, Vasyl 1958 births 2011 deaths Donetsk National Technical University alumni Prime Ministers of Crimea Preservation of natural environment ministers of Ukraine Fifth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Sixth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Mayors of places in Ukraine Party of Regions politicians People from Donetsk Oblast Deaths from cancer in Ukraine Deaths from lung cancer Ukrainian people of Greek descent Crimean Greeks