KIEV, Dec 3 (AFP) - Viktor Yanukovich -- Russia's man in Kiev -- is a blue-collar coal-mining boss with a troubled childhood, who used mysterious connections to rise through the Soviet hierarchy and become the would-be president of Ukraine.
The 54-year-old industrialist, from a Russian-speaking mining region, spent two stints in jail as a youth before developing Soviet-era friends who helped erase his criminal record and propelled his rise through Communist party ranks.
Although he remains a neophyte on the international arena, Yanukovich became governor of the Donetsk region, which has provided many of today's current Ukraine leaders, before making the jump to Kiev.
He became outgoing President Leonid Kuchma's prime minister in 2002 under the simple slogan of keeping close ties with Russia, and governed during an economic boom that witnessed the economy grow by more than 12 percent this year, according to official statistics.
That jump -- and Yanukovich's use of the state media, which often showed him touring shops filled to bursting with produce in the run-up to Ukraine's controversial presidential campaign -- helped him win the official count in the race against Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko.
But he was also helped to power by his mentor Kuchma.
After a decade in power marked by scandals, allegations of murder, and economic upheaval, Kuchma developed many enemies but few trusted allies and finally settled on Yanukovich as the torch-bearer of Kiev's political and business establishment.
Yanukovich did not spell out his economic policy, but his two main political slogans include the introduction of Russian as a second language -- he speaks limited English himself -- and close ties with Moscow.
That has guaranteed him strong support from Russia, which fears what might happen to its once-dominant sway over the republic should the pro-Western opposition win.
Much of Yanukovich's biography remains shrouded in secrecy. He once told reporters that "I came from a very poor family and my main dream in life was to break out of this poverty."
His initial efforts to do so were troubled. Yanukovich was sent to a teenage prison in 1968 shortly after enrolling in a technical school, and had another spell in jail for inflicting serious bodily harm during an alleged armed robbery two years later.
His criminal record was later cleared, leaving Yanukovich free to launch a career as an electrician, eventually rising through the ranks to become factory boss and eventually regional governor.
Political analysts and local reports said Yanukovich at that time became closely tied to the "Donetsk clan", which together with Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk -- the heart of the military-industrial complex -- comprised the three main power bases under Kuchma.
This led to poor relations with Yushchenko, who at the time served as a reformist prime minister and led a campaign to break the businesses' close ties with the political elite and Kouchma.
If in Kiev, Yanukovich is viewed with deep suspicion by the population, in his hometown, a grim 200,000-strong city dominated by the coal industry and a big steel mill, locals stand by their local boy.
"Yushchenko is very aggressive, I don't know what kind of a person he is, but I know Vitya," said 76-year-old Valentina Sysoyeva who lived next door to Yanukovich up until the day he was sent to prison.
"Fate didn't treat him well, his mother died when he was three and after his grandmother passed away there was nobody to look after him except for his father who couldn't get him out of the trouble he got himself into," Sysoyeva said.
12/03/2004 20:03 GMT - AFP