Oleksandr Feldman

Olexandr Borysovych Feldman (Ukrainian: Олександр Борисович Фельдман) (born January 6, 1960, Kharkiv) is a Ukrainian politician and public figure of Jewish origin, People's Deputy of Ukraine (since 2002), businessman, multi-millionaire. He is considered to be one of the most influential people in Kharkiv.[1] In 2013 he entered the rating of the hundred richest Ukrainians of the Ukrainian magazine Forbes, finishing 35th ($ 287m).[2] Since June 2015, the co-chairman of the political party Our Land.

Biography

He is married and has two sons[3] and a grandson.[1] He graduated from the Kharkiv National University in 2002, as an economist.[4]

He is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and president of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee.[5] Feldman is also a co-founder of the Institute of Human Rights and the Prevention of Extremism and Xenophobia.[6]

Feldman first entered the Ukrainian parliament after winning a single-member district located in Kharkiv during the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[7] In parliament he joined the United Ukraine faction and when that party merged with Batkivshchyna Feldman joined this party too.[7][8][9][10]

Batkivshchyna was a part of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc during the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election and 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election Feldman was re-elected into parliament on a party ticket of this bloc of political parties.[7][11] He also was of its Kharkiv regional party organization.[7] In March 2011 Feldman left the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc faction in parliament and joined the Party of Regions.[7] He did so citing too much influence of nationalism in the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.[7]

In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election Feldman won a parliamentary seat in a single-member district located in Kharkiv for Party of Regions.[7]

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Feldman as an independent candidate won the same single-member district as in 2012 with 64.94% of the votes.[7][12]

Feldman joined the party Our Land in August 2015.[13]

In 2017, he was elected to the board of the international organization "Religions for Peace", a pacifist organization with headquarters in New York, which has consultative status with UNESCO, UNICEF and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.[14]

In the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Feldman was re-elected to parliament after again winning electoral district 174 in Kharkiv, again as an independent candidate.[15][16] This time with 37.24% of the votes (slightly 4% more than runner-up Viktoria Alekseychuk of the Servant of the People party).[15][17] In parliament he joined the Opposition Platform — For Life faction.[18] For this party Feldman was candidate in the October 2020 Kharkiv mayoral election.[19] He finished second with 14.32%, losing to incumbent mayor Hennadiy Kernes.[20]

On 15 March 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Feldman left the Opposition Platform — For Life faction stating that the party's actions leading up to and during the war contradicted their previous stance of stressing the need to negotiate agreements to end wars.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b "Фельдман Александр. ДОСЬЕ :: Персональный сайт Сергея Руденко". www.rudenko.kiev.ua. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  2. ^ "Форбс" оценил сотню самых богатых украинцев в 55 млрд. долларов (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  3. ^ Биография. Александр Фельдман (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  4. ^ "Довідка: Фельдман Олександр Борисович". dovidka.com.ua. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  5. ^ Daniel K. Eisenbud (March 10, 2014). "Ukrainian Jewish Committee: Russian claims of anti-Semitism in Crimea are lies, propaganda". Jerusalem Post.
  6. ^ "Ukrainian Jews Fear for Their Safety – 'We Are on High Alert'". The Algemeiner Journal. December 8, 2013.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h (in Russian)/(website has automatic Google Translate option) Short bio, LIGA
  8. ^ (in Ukrainian) Всеукраїнське об'єднання "Батьківщина" All-Ukrainian Union Batkivshchyna, RBC Ukraine
  9. ^ ORANGE COALITION CRUMBLES AHEAD OF POLLS, The Jamestown Foundation (30 November 2005)
  10. ^ (in Ukrainian) Партія «Єдина Україна» Party "United Ukraine" Archived 2010-10-23 at the Wayback Machine, poli.in.ua
  11. ^ (in Ukrainian) Всеукраїнське об'єднання „Батьківщина“, Database DATA
  12. ^ (in Ukrainian) Candidates and winner for the seat in constituency 174 in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, RBK Ukraine
  13. ^ (in Ukrainian) Mayors of major cities joined the party "Our Land" and go to the polls, Espreso TV (4 August 2015)
  14. ^ "Харьковский нардеп стал членом правления организации "Религия за мир"". www.segodnya.ua (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  15. ^ a b "Електоральна пам'ять". ukr.vote.
  16. ^ "ЦВК визнала обраними вже 84 народних депутати". 30 July 2019.
  17. ^ "Центральна виборча комісія - Вибори народних депутатів України 2019". cvk.gov.ua.
  18. ^ "ТОП-10 страхів: чого бояться українські депутати?". Вибори вибори.
  19. ^ (in Ukrainian) Local elections. Kharkiv: between Kernes and Kernes, The Ukrainian Week (29 August 2019)
  20. ^ (in Ukrainian) Kharkiv, the votes in the mayoral election were counted: who wins and whether there will be a second round, UNIAN (4 November 2020)
  21. ^ Свобода, Радіо (15 March 2022). "Народний депутат Фельдман пояснив, чому вийшов із ОПЗЖ". Радіо Свобода.

Media related to Aleksander Feldman at Wikimedia Commons