Volodymyr Mykhailovych Lytvyn (, ; born April 28, 1956) is a Ukrainian politician best known for being Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. Having previously served in that position from 2002 until 2006, he was re-elected in December 2008 after his party agreed to join the former coalition of Yulia Tymoshenko in an expanded capacity and stayed Chairman until December 2012. From 1994 to 1999, Lytvyn was the aide to President Leonid Kuchma and, later, the head of his office. Early biography and private life Lytvyn was born in Sloboda-Romanivska village in the Novohrad-Volynskyi Raion of the Zhytomyr Oblast. Lytvyn graduated from the Kyiv University (Faculty of History) in 1978. In 1984, he defended his dissertation "Efforts of the Communist Party of Ukraine in improving the preparation of teachers in social disciplines". Lytvyn started his career at the Kyiv State University (1978−86), then he worked as Head of Directorate in the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Vocational Training of the Ukrainian SSR (1986−89). Between 1989 and 1991 he worked as a political analyst at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Ukrainian branch of CPSU. Lytvyn is a correspondent member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Honored Worker of Sciences and Technology of Ukraine. However, in 2002 he was publicly and reasonably accused of plagiarizing a Western scholar when writing his article to Dzerkalo Tyzhnia newspaper. He is married to Tetyana Kostyantynivna (born 1960), an economist. Their daughter Olena (born 1982) is a beauty industry entrepreneur, and their son Ivan (born 1989) is a student. Lytvyn's hobbies include reading, football, and taking care of dalmatian dogs. Political career Head of the Presidential Administration In 1994, Lytvyn became the aide to the newly elected President Leonid Kuchma. In 1999, he was appointed as the head of the Presidential Administration. Gongadze murder During the Cassette Scandal audiotapes were released on which Kuchma, Lytvyn and other top-level administration officials are allegedly heard discussing the need to silence Georgiy Gongadze for his online news reports about high-level corruption. Gongadze's decapitated body was found in the suburbs of Kyiv in November 2000. In 2000, Mykola Melnychenko released a secretly-taped recording allegedly of a conversation between Kuchma and Lytvyn in which the two discussed getting rid of Gongadze. Lytvyn is alleged to have said that Kuchma should "let loose [Interior Minister] Kravchenko to use alternative methods" on Gongadze. Lytvyn