Raisa Bogatyrova


Raisa Vasylivna Bogatyrova is a Ukrainian politician and former Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Health and former Secretary of National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. In the past, Bogatyrova served as a People's Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada for the Communist, Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine and more recently the Party of Regions.
In October 2014 Bogatyrova was put on its wanted list by Ukrainian authorities as a suspect of large-scale embezzlement of state budget funds. According to the Ukrainian government she has since repaid government funds that had been allegedly misappropriated. At the time here whereabouts were unknown. On 27 August 2019 Bogatyrova returned to Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian magazine Фокус Bogatyrova has placed among the top 10 most influential women in Ukraine since 2005–2010. She was recognized as the second most influential woman in 2006–2008 after Yulia Tymoshenko.

Biography

Bogatyrova was born on January 6, 1953 in the town of Bakal, Chelyabinsk Oblast, of the Russian SFSR to family of workers. She was born on the day of the Christmas Eve according to the Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Her father is Vasyl Petrovych Laktionov and mother – Hanna Markivna Laktionova. Raisa has two older sisters Valentyna and Vira. On her website she claims that her family is from village of Protopopivka in Kharkiv Oblast. Bohatyriova also stated that her ancestors are from the Sloboda Ukraine.
Her biography on the personal website is written kind of awkward. First she stated that she does not know any of her relatives in Ukraine, while later claims that her aunt still lives in Kharkiv Oblast. After that Bohatyriova mentions her grandma whom she barely saw, yet her face she carries in herself as a depiction of honesty. Raisa's oldest sister is 13 years older than she is. Bohatyriova calls 1970 the proletarian year, the year of hardship.
Bohatyriova married her husband sometime in 1975. Her husband Ihor Oleksandrovych at that time was a student at the Kharkiv Aviation Institute. Bogatyrova sympathizes Margaret Thatcher and reads Winston Churchill and Anton Chekhov.
In 1971 Bogatyrova enrolled into the Luhansk Medical Institute. In 1977 she graduated from Kharkiv Medical Institute with merits gaining a doctorate qualification. In 1996 graduated from the Kiev University, specializing in Jurisprudence, qualifications – Lawyer, Medical Doctor, professor. Her candidate dissertation Optimal System of Mass Ultrasound Screening of the Pregnant she defended in the Kharkiv National Medical University in 1996. In 2000 Bogatyriova defended her doctorate dissertation Role of Inborn and Inherited Pathology in Reproductive Losses of a Family in the same university.

Career

1970–1971Seamstress at Kramatorsk Garment Factory
1977–1979Internship at the City Hospital #2 in Horlivka
1979–1980Obstetrician-gynecologist at the 3rd Medico-Sanitary Department at the Novokramatorsk
Engineering Plant in Kramatorsk
1980–1990Obstetrician-gynecologist; Head of Trade-Union Committee; Deputy Head Physician at the Kramatorsk Central Municipal Hospital

In 1997–2003, Bogatyrova was the Secretary of the Supervisory Board at the National Fund of Social Protection for Mothers and Children Ukraine to Children.

Political career

Bohatyriova was a member of the Communist Party of Soviet Union and a member of the organizational committee in the creation of the Socialist Party of Ukraine. She was elected to the Verkhovna Rada by the members of the Kramatorsk city hospital as a people's deputy, a duty of which she accepted on May 15, 1990. On her website Bohatyriova claims that during her initial experience in the Verkhovna Rada let her to get a real sense of the Ukrainian language. In March 1994 Bohatyriova was not re-elected, yet was appointed as a Deputy of Minister of Health Security. She made a career in this position working her way up to be appointed as a Minister of the portfolio on January 27, 1999. On January 12, 2000 Bohatyriova was deposed as a Minister of Health Security when the Prime Minister of Ukraine was appointed Viktor Yushchenko, however in few months she was appointed as a science adviser to the President of Ukraine.
In July 2000 Bohatyriova was again elected to the parliament now as a member of the Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine. She left her faction once she became a people's deputy and was unaffiliated until March 2001. In March 2001 Bohatyrova joined the Regions of Ukraine group and in November its faction. In April 2002 she was re-elected by the United Ukraine block as the leader of the Party of Regions. Bohatyriova was re-elected once again in April 2006 as the Party of Regions member placing sixth on the party list. From July 2006 until February 2007 she was a member of the Budget Committee.
In November 2007 during the all-national reelections Bohatyriova again became a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Party of Region. On December 24, 2007 she received an appointment from the President of Ukraine to head the Secretariat of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. On January 28, 2008 the administration of Party of Regions excluded her out the party's list.
On 14 February 2012 Bogatyrova was removed from the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and appointed Minister of Health
On 24 February 2014, just after the "Maidan revolution", the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Bogatyrova.

Criminal proceedings against Bogatyrova

On 20 October 2014 Bogatyrova was declared a suspect of the crime of large-scale embezzlement of 6 million Ukrainian hryvnia in budget funds, the next day she was placed on the wanted list and the court ordered the seizure of three apartments in Kiev, one apartments in Yalta and three houses in Pidhirtsi owned by her and her husband.
Early March 2014 the European Union froze all funds belonging to Bogatyrova because they also suspected her of illegal use of budget funds. On January 12, 2015 Interpol published an international red notice again Bogatyrova as wanted for corruption and charges of “misappropriation, embezzlement or conversion of property by malversation". According to the Ukrainian government she has since repaid government funds that had been allegedly misappropriated. For this her funds in the EU were unfrozen.
The years following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution Bogatyrova's whereabouts were unknown. On 27 August 2019 Bogatyrova returned to Ukraine and was immediately detained by police. She was released from the pre-trial detention center two days later after Vadym Novynskyi had posted bail for her.

Awards and titles