Raisa Bohatyriova

Her father is Vasyl Petrovych Laktionov (1912–1985), and her mother – is Hanna Markivna Laktionova (born 1918).

Bohatyriova has two older sisters Valentyna and Vira.

On her website, she claims that her family is from the village of Protopopivka in Kharkiv Oblast.

Bohatyriova also stated that her ancestors are from Sloboda Ukraine.

Raisa Vasylivna Bohatyriova (Раїса Василівна Богатирьова; Раиса Васильевна Богатырёва; born January 6, 1953) is a Ukrainian politician and former Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Health and former Secretary of National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

In the past, Bohatyriova served as a People's Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) for the Communist, Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine and, more recently, the Party of Regions.

Bohatyriova was born on January 6, 1953, in the town of Bakal, Chelyabinsk Oblast, of the Russian SFSR (then the Soviet Union), to a family of workers.

She was born on the day of Christmas Eve, according to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

In 1971 Bohatyriova enrolled at the Luhansk Medical Institute.

Bohatyriova married her husband sometime in 1975.

Her husband, Ihor Oleksandrovych was a student at the Kharkiv Aviation Institute.

Bohatyriova sympathizes with Margaret Thatcher and reads Winston Churchill and Anton Chekhov.

In 1977 she graduated from Kharkiv Medical Institute with merits gaining a doctorate qualification.

She was elected to the Verkhovna Rada by the members of the Kramatorsk city hospital as a people's deputy, a duty she accepted on May 15, 1990.

On her website, Bohatyriova claims that her initial experience in the Verkhovna Rada gave her a real sense of the Ukrainian language.

In March 1994, Bohatyriova was not re-elected, yet was appointed as a Deputy of Minister of Health Security.

In 1996 graduated from Kyiv University, specializing in Jurisprudence, qualifications – Lawyer, Medical Doctor, and professor.

Her candidate dissertation, Optimal System of Mass Ultrasound Screening of the Pregnant, she defended in the Kharkiv National Medical University in 1996.

From 1997 to 2003, Bohatyriova was the Secretary of the Supervisory Board at the National Fund of Social Protection for Mothers and Children Ukraine to Children.

Bohatyriova was a member of the Communist Party of Soviet Union and a member of the organizing committee in the creation of the Socialist Party of Ukraine.

She made a career in this position, working her way up to be appointed Minister of the portfolio on January 27, 1999.

In 2000 Bohatyriova defended her doctorate dissertation, Role of Inborn and Inherited Pathology in Reproductive Losses of a Family, in the same university.

On January 12, 2000, Bohatyriova was deposed as a Minister of Health Security when the Prime Minister of Ukraine was appointed, Viktor Yushchenko.

However, in a few months, she was appointed as a science adviser to the President of Ukraine.

In July 2000, Bohatyriova was again elected to the parliament as a member of the Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine.

She left her faction once she became a people's deputy and was unaffiliated until March 2001.

In March 2001, Bohatyriova joined the Regions of Ukraine group and, in November, its faction.

In April 2002, she was re-elected by the United Ukraine block as the leader of the Party of Regions.

According to the Ukrainian magazine Focus, Bohatyriova has placed among the top 10 most influential women in Ukraine from 2005 to 2010 (five years).

She was recognized as the second most influential woman in 2006–2008 after Yulia Tymoshenko.

Bohatyriova was re-elected in April 2006 as the Party of Regions member, placing sixth on the party list.

From July 2006 until February 2007, she was a member of the Budget Committee.

In November 2007, during the all-national reelections, Bohatyriova again became a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Party of Region.

On December 24, 2007, she received an appointment from the President of Ukraine to head the Secretariat of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

On January 28, 2008, the administration of the Party of Regions excluded her from the party's list.

On February 14, 2012, Bohatyriova was removed from the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and appointed Minister of Health.

In October 2014, Bohatyriova was put on its wanted list by Ukrainian authorities as a suspect of large-scale embezzlement of state budget funds.

According to the Ukrainian government, she has since repaid government funds that had allegedly been misappropriated.

At the time her whereabouts were unknown.

On August 27, 2019, Bohatyriova returned to Ukraine.