Yulia Tymoshenko - Early Life and Career - Business Career

Business Career

After graduating from the Dnipropetrovsk State University in 1984 Tymoshenko worked as an engineer-economist in a "Dnipro Machine-Building Plant" in Dnipropetrovsk (the factory produced missiles) until 1988.

In 1988, as part of the perestroika initiatives, Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko borrowed 5000 Soviet rubles and opened a video rental cooperative, perhaps with the help of Oleksander's father Gennadi Tymoshenko, who presided over a regional film distribution network in the provincial council.

In 1989–1991, Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko founded and headed a Komsomol video rental company, "Terminal", in Dnipropetrovsk (which grew to be quite successful), and later privatized it.

In 1991 Tymoshenko established (jointly with her husband Oleksandr, Gennadi Tymoshenko and Olexandr Gravets) "The Ukrainian Petrol Corporation", a company that provided the agriculture industry of Dnipropetrovsk with fuel from 1991 to 1995. Tymoshenko worked as a General Director. From 1995 to 1997, Tymoshenko was the president of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a privately owned middleman company that became the main importer of Russian natural gas to Ukraine in 1996. During that time she was nicknamed "gas princess" in light of accusations that she had been reselling enormous quantities of stolen gas and avoiding taxation of those deals. She was also accused of "having given Pavlo Lazarenko kickbacks in exchange for her company's stranglehold on the country's gas supplies". During this period Tymoshenko was involved in business relations (either co-operative or hostile) with many important figures of Ukraine. The list includes Pavlo Lazarenko, Viktor Pinchuk, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Sergei Tigipko, Leonid Kuchma who at that time was the President of Ukraine. All of these are, like Tymoshenko, originally from Dnipropetrovsk. Tymoshenko has also been closely linked to the management of the Russian corporation, Gazprom.

In the period 1995-1997 Tymoshenko was considered one of the richest business people in Ukraine. But Tymoshenko's business was destroyed by political means in 1998. Since 1998, Tymoshenko was one of the most important politicians in Ukraine. Since 2006, she has no longer been ranked even as one of the "100 richest Ukrainians".