Oleksandr Turchynov Oleksandr Turchynov Oleksandr Valentynovych Turchynov (; born 31 March 1964) is a Ukrainian politician, screenwriter, Baptist minister and economist. He is the current Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. Turchynov is a former acting President of Ukraine from the removal from power of President Viktor Yanukovych on 21 February 2014, until Petro Poroshenko was sworn in as Ukrainian President on 7 June 2014. He then became Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament until 27 November 2014. Turchynov also served as acting Prime Minister in 2010 (when he was the First Vice Prime Minister in the absence of
History of Crimea in the aftermath of the Euromaidan revolution. On 21 February, President Viktor Yanukovych agreed to a three-party memorandum that would have kept him in office until the end of the year. Within 24 hours the agreement was broken by the Maidan-activists and the president was forced to flee. He was dismissed the following day by a rump Verkhovna Rada, the legislature elected in 2012, and the Government he dismissed was replaced by a non-elected, illegal "Government", contrary to the Constitution. In the absence of a president, the newly appointed Speaker of the legislature, Oleksandr Turchynov, became acting President with limited