Party of Regions

Also known as Party of the Regions, Regions faction, Regions of Ukraine, Vremya Regionov, Party of Regions Ukraine, Party of Ukrainian Regions

Russophone political party of Ukraine

Key facts

Leader: Collective leadership
Executive secretary: Borys Kolesnikov
Founders: Mykola Azarov , Yukhym Zvyahilsky , Volodymyr Rybak
Founded: 26 October 1997, ( 28 years, 220 days)
Banned: 21 February 2023, ( 3 years, 102 days)
Succeeded by: Opposition Bloc (mainly) Our Land (partial) Revival (partial)
Headquarters: Kyiv
Newspaper: Vremya Regionov
Youth wing: Young Regions
Membership 2013: 450,000
Ideology: Social democracy , Regionalism , Russophilia , Euroscepticism , Catch-all party
Political position: Centre-left

~33 min read

Article

The Party of Regions (Ukrainian: Партія регіонів, romanized: Partiia rehioniv, pronounced [ˈpɑrt⁽ʲ⁾ijɐ reɦiˈɔn⁽ʲ⁾iu̯]; Russian: Партия регионов, romanized: Partiya regionov) was a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine formed in late 1997 that used to be the largest party in Ukraine between 2006 and 2014.

Since the Revolution of Dignity, the party has not competed in elections and members have slowly dispersed; the last election in which the party participated was the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. The best-known former party members are former prime minister Mykola Azarov and former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych; both fled to Russia in February 2014 after Euromaidan.