Valentina Matvienko

Valentina Mat vienko is the Chairman of the Federation Council.

Short biography

Valentina Matvienko was born on April 7, 1949 in Shepetivka, Khmelnitsk Region, Ukraine.

She received her higher education in St. Petersburg, where in 1972 she graduated from the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Institute.

Matvienko began her political career at the time of the Soviet Union. She started as a secretary of one of the district committees of the Leningrad Komsomol and in 1989 rose to the rank and mandate of People's Deputy of the USSR.

In 1991, Matvienko went into the diplomatic sphere. Up until the collapse of the Soviet Union she worked as Ambassador of the USSR in Malta. She remained in the same chair during the creation of the Russian Federation, representing a new country in Malta until 1994.

Valentina Matvienko won the St. Petersburg gubernatorial election in 2003.

In August 2011, Matvienko joined the Russian Federation Council, and at the end of September the same year Matvienko was appointed head of the Federation Council.

In Russia, Valentina Matvienko became notorious for her active support of the bill on raising the retirement age.

Anti-Ukrainian position

Valentina Matvienko chaired a meeting of the Federation Council where it was decided to allow Vladimir Putin to use the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine. In fact, it was with this permission that the official part of the annexation of Crimea began.

In Ukraine, Matvienko was stripped of all her awards and titles. By decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, she is banned from entering Ukrainian territory.

When the European Union and the United States imposed a series of sanctions against Russia and Russian officials, Matviyenko was also affected. She was banned from entering the EU, as well as the U.S., Australia and Canada, and all of Matvienko's assets in the EU were frozen. In Russia, Valentina Matvienko has been awarded the order "For Merit to the Fatherland" and is its full Cavalier.