Viktor Yanukovych Donetsk during 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, when he referred to the electorate of his opponent Viktor Yushchenko as "goats that make our lives difficult" ("эти козлы, которые нам мешают жить"). Later, during the TV debates with Yushchenko he explained, "I called goats the traitors. According to the Bible, the goat is a traitor, and there are also rams, sheep." After his February 2014 escape to Russia, during his 28 February press-conference in Rostov-on-Don, Yanukovych said, "Ukraine is our strategic partner" (misspeaking and confusing Ukraine with Russia). During the same press-conference he also broke a pen in an emotional outburst, while
Oleksandr Yanukovych for Oleksandr. In 2017, however, Interpol removed all data on the pair, and confirmed that Oleksandr was not on the wanted list. In 2017, Swiss authorities confirmed that Oleksandr Yanukovych did not have any personal bank accounts or assets in Switzerland, apart from those owned by MAKO Trading SA. In October, the ECJ (European Court of Justice) upheld sanctions against Oleksandr and his father. In March 2015, Yanukovych's younger brother was reported to have drowned after a vehicle he was travelling in fell through ice in Siberia. News reports at the time highlighted several similar deaths of people with ties