Ukraine Support Act the Yatsenyuk Government, as well as the appointment of a new Acting President of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said President Yanukovych was illegally impeached and that Russia continues to regard him as Ukraine’s legitimate president. Russia describes the Yatsenyk government as "self-proclaimed" and the events in Kiev as a "coup d'etat". Yanukovych supporters point out that not enough members of the parliament were present for the vote to reach the three-fourths majority required to impeach a President according to the Constitution of Ukraine. Beginning on February 26, pro-Russian forces gradually took control of the Crimean
Oleksandr Turchynov political figure from Dnipropetrovsk. They used to have a common business in Dnipropetrovsk. In December 1993, Turchynov co-founded and became Vice President of Ukrainian Union of Industrialist and Entrepreneurs. In 1994 he created the political party Hromada together with Pavlo Lazarenko, a business ally of Tymoshenko. Turchynov was also director of the Economic Reforms Institute from January 1994 to March 1998 and was head of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences' Laboratory of Shadow Economy Research. In 1998, he was elected to parliament as a member of Hromada but after the scandal around Lazarenko, he left the faction and party