Can you guess who was named Ukraine’s “most influential woman”?

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US influence in Kiev increased dramatically following the “Maidan Revolution” – the February 2014 US-EU-sponsored coup that overthrew the elected government of ‘Ukraine and dragged the country into a civil war.

A leading Ukrainian news magazine has named US Ambassador Kristina Kvien the country’s “most influential woman”.

The ranking, published by Focus magazine, is based on the perceived influence of women in Ukrainian politics, society, culture and economy with the Forbes Style List comprising 100 women, and compiled annually.

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska is ranked second in the rankings, while Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova is ranked third.

Former Prime Minister and longtime opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko is in fourth place, while Melinda Simmons, British Ambassador to Ukraine, rounds out the top five.

Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, as well as businesswoman Galina Gerega, politician Iryna Herashchenko, presidential spokeswoman Iryna Pobedonostseva and singer Kateryna Pavlenko are in the top ten.

Commenting on the decision to rank two foreign diplomats among the country’s five most influential women, Focus magazine editor-in-chief Alexei Gazubei suggested that this reflects current realities.

“Even if it is not for long, foreign nationals can have a significant impact on the situation in the country. That’s why the editors chose Kristina Kvien at the top of the current rankings, and also included Melinda Simmons on the list, ”Gazubei explained.

Kvien was appointed United States Ambassador to Ukraine in January 2020 after briefly serving as Acting Ambassador between May and June 2019. The career diplomat joined the State Department’s Foreign Service in 1992, working in France, Philippines , Slovenia and Belgium, and spending time in Washington at the State Department’s Europe and Eurasia office.

She worked at the United States Embassy in Moscow, Russia, for a brief period in the early 2000s, then transferred to the United States National Security Council, directing “EU affairs, EU economies and Caspian energy for Ukraine and Belarus ”. She was then shipped overseas again, to the UK, Thailand and France, before arriving in Kiev in 2019. Kvien graduated from the US Army War College.

As the ambassador, Kvien has made few notable public statements other than her warning earlier this year that the United States could deploy more troops in Ukraine if tensions between Kiev and Moscow escalate into a hot war.

Ukrainian opposition politicians have long complained about the inordinate influence they fear for US officials in shaping the country’s foreign and domestic policy.

Washington openly comments on Ukraine’s “progress” or “retreats” on various political, economic and social reforms often linked to US aid programs on a regular basis. Behind the scenes, the United States has been known to put pressure on senior Ukrainian officials for unsavory reasons or even on the basis of the personal ambitions of some American politicians. The most famous example of the latter kind of pressure rocked American politics between 2019 and 2020, when an attempt by then-President Donald Trump to investigate the alleged illegal activities of the Biden family in Ukraine during the Obama presidency by possibly withholding US arms deliveries to Kiev. sparked a congressional inquiry and an impeachment inquiry against Trump himself.

Last year, an aide to ex-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko who became a fugitive leaked an audio bombshell of telephone conversations between Poroshenko and senior US officials, including Biden, with several of the talks, which the Democrat did not dispute. veracity, appearing to show vice The president forced Kiev to fire a prosecutor investigating the alleged money laundering and influence peddling activities of his son Hunter with a Ukrainian natural gas company. Biden then openly bragged about having the prosecutor sacked by threatening to withhold a billion dollar loan.



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