Mykola Volodymyrovych Tomenko (; born December 11, 1964) is a Ukrainian politician. He has been a member of Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada from 2006 until 2016. In 2014, Tomenko became a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, which elected him to the 8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada on its party lists during the 2014 parliamentary election. On 25 March 2016 the party Congress of Petro Poroshenko Bloc removed Tomenko's parliamentary mandate using the Imperative mandate provisions of the Ukrainian constitution. This was considered illegal by Tomenko; on 28 July 2016 Ukraine's highest Administrative Court rejected his appeal to gain back his parliamentary seat. Tomenko is a centre-right politician, previously a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. He was also one of the leaders and most notable speakers of the Orange Revolution. In 2005, Tomenko served as Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine in the Cabinet of Yulia Tymoshenko (coordinating humanitarian policy). In the Verkhovna Rada, he also served as the Chairman of the Freedom of Speech and Mass Media Committee and twice as the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (during the 6th and 7th convocations). Tomenko tendered his resignation as deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada on 4 July 2012 as a sign of protest against the way legislation on languages in Ukraine was passed on 3 July 2012. Biography Early life Mykola Tomenko (born in a village of Mali Kanivtsi, Chornobai Raion, currently Zolotonosha Raion, in Cherkasy Oblast of Ukraine) is one of the few veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War among the Ukrainian politicians. Between 1983 and 1985 Tomenko served his conscript service in the Soviet Airborne Troops, reaching a rank of Sergeant during the war. In 1989, after his military service, Tomenko graduated from Kyiv University specializing in Ukrainian political history. Shortly after, in 1992 he obtained his Kandidat degree (roughly equivalent to Ph.D.) defending his thesis on the topic "The issue of statehood in the program, documents and activities of the present-day parties in Ukraine (historical-political analysis)." During his student years, after initially being a Komsomol activist, Tomenko later became the initiator of the local Komsomol organization's dissolution. Tomenko began his professional career in 1992 at the Institute of National Operation and Self-government as the Head of the Political Science Department. Between 1992-1998 he was the vice-president of the Foundation "The Ukrainian Outlook", the director of the Institute of Post-communism Society and the Institute of Politics (listed are