Konstantina Grigorievna

Konstantina Jiraiya Payaimar Grigorievna (born 3 April 1969) is the fifteenth and incumbent of the United Federated Districts, having assumed office in May 2015. The first female to attain both the presidency and leadership of the Democratic Socialists and Progressives, she was previously a United Federated Districts Representative for Minerinsk from 2011 to 2015. She served in the Minerinsk-Belgorod District Legislature as a representative from 1996 until 2004, when she became.

Grigorievna was born in 1969 in Minerinsk-Belgorod, three years before the metropolis was officially declared a. Raised largely in Minerinsk, Grigorievna also spent four years of her childhood in the city of Kogalma, where her maternal family originated. After graduating from the National University of the United Federated Districts in Shchyokhov in 1990, she worked as a community organiser in Minerinsk-Belgorod. In 1992 Grigorievna enrolled in the globally-renowned E.K. Lemenev School of Law, where she was the first female president of the scholarly journal the Lemenev Law Review. After graduation, she became a human rights attorney and professor, and occasionally taught law, human rights and social justice at the Minerinsk Law College from 1995 to 2011. Grigorievna represented Minerinsk-Belgorod’s 22nd ward in the district legislature for two terms from 1996 to 2004, when she successfully ran for the office of the district’s chancellor. Grigorievna received national attention in 2011, with her landslide May election to the House of Representatives, representing the Minerinsk Yug constituency. In January 2015 Grigorievna succeeded in the DSP leadership contest, the first woman to attain the office. In the 2015 general election, she was elected over primary opponent People of Yarova’s Tanas Gruzdev and was inaugurated on 11 May 2015. Seven months later, Grigorievna was named the 2015 International Peace Prize recipient.

Over the course of her first two years in office, Grigorievna has signed many landmark bills into law. She has repeatedly emphasised that government reforms would be implemented as part of the DSP’s agreed ten-year plan, which is composed of passed motions drawn up predominantly by grassroots activists. Thus far, the main reforms have been: the Gender Employment Equity Act (which prohibits pay disparities based on gender and has made it easier to report gender-based discrimination); the Minimum Wage Revision Act (which raised the from 10 USD an hour to 15 USD); the Infrastructural Planning and Development Act (which is set to pump $1 trillion USD into infrastructural development over the next eight years); and the launching of a youth employment programme, which has received $25 million USD in investment.

In foreign policy, Grigorievna has stirred up controversy by admitting Yarova into the League of Free Nations in 2018, but has voiced a commitment to increase the country’s place on the world stage only through “peaceful and diplomatic means.” She has laid out trade and commercial ‘advantages’ for nations that sign the Yarovan-founded International Pact on Defeating Climate Change (IPDCC) and her government have begun to increase funding of nonprofit environmentalist organisations based across the globe.

Notably, Grigorievna has promoted greater inclusiveness for LGBT Yarovars. Her administration filed briefs that urged the Supreme Court of Yarova to strike down the notorious laws which defined which bathrooms people could use as unconstitutional (United Federated Districts v. Golov and Vlacic v. Zverev). Additionally, she appointed trans woman Karolina Schneider as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the first ever transgender person in a Yarovan government position. Grigorievna revealed to the press in 2016 that she is and set up a free LGBT helpline across the Federated Districts. Her administration also passed a law which has made compulsory in all Yarovan public schools from the first year of primary school onwards – such education is required to include a comprehensive LGBT framework. Grigorievna has been championed as the most LGBT-friendly president in the history of the United Federated Districts.

Early life and career
Grigorievna was born Konstantina Jiraiya Payaimar on 3 April 1969 at the Beryolym Hospital for Women and Children of the Republic in Minerinsk-Belgorod, United Federated Districts. She is the only president to have been born and/or raised in the free city district. She was born to a mother and a father of Mahdi and  heritage. Her mother, Yuliana Chinweuba-Roshny (born 1945), was born and raised in Kogalma; hailing from an ‘old black’ lineage, with a presence in Yarova tracing back to the seventeenth century. Her father, Harij Payaimar Snr. (1937-2010), was born in Minerinsk to a Mahdi immigrant father and a Hay mother originally from Kogalma. It was in the city of Kogalma where Grigorievna’s parents met in the late-1960s, while her father, who was a, was on a work placement. Her mother worked as a in legal surroundings during this period and Payaimar was supposedly smitten when they first met. They were married in 1967 and moved to Payaimar’s hometown of Minerinsk. They had their first child, a son, Josef, the following year. Grigorievna also has two younger brothers, Kazimir (born 1972) and Harij Jr. (born 1973). She was named after her two grandmothers, her paternal grandmother Jiraiya Payaimar (née Ghazarian) and her maternal grandmother Konstantina Chinweuba (née Roshny). Grigorievna was raised in a family of devout and attended St. Magda’s Primary School, an Orthodox educational establishment in the ward of Slaksa in south-east Minerinsk. She studied at a public school for her secondary level education, the Sarolma Hill Secondary School. In her youth, Grigorievna was a keen, and debater. She joined the DSP at the age of 16 years in 1985. After graduation, in 1987, Grigorievna earned a scholarship and studied at the National University of the United Federated Districts in Shchyokhov.

Education
In her first, Grigorievna recalled with fondness her time at university studying for her bachelor’s degree: “The 1980s was a decade of sweeping changes in Yarova, attitudes were transforming, and the status quo was being rightly challenged. University was, and still is, home to capable, innovative young people willing and fully-equipped to take on the establishment. This really excited me.” She joint-majored in and, with a speciality in  and  at the National University of the United Federated Districts, living off-campus on Nyelkesk Avenue, Shchyokhov. During this time, she played an active role in the politics and debating society, as well as the equestrian sports club. She maintained broad, varied social circles within the university environment, although she kept close confidants who would emerge as political comrades and even fellow prominent members of the DSP – including current Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure Emma Louise Anrep.

Grigorievna has also spoken of her more personal experiences as a late teen at university, including her first same-sex romantic encounter and smoking cannabis with friends. She campaigned fiercely in the run-up to student union referenda in support of LGBT rights, cannabis legalisation and the decriminalisation of. These moments proved to be massively instrumental in her political career development – earning praise from comrades and contempt from conservative opponents alike. Outside of her age bracket, such social issues were not popular or widely-held at the time, albeit Yarovan society was becoming increasingly progressive. However, some members of the DSP grew especially cautious of the party shifting further to the and of those who endorsed it, Grigorievna and her youth comrades among such advocates.

After graduation in 1990, Grigorievna worked as a community organiser and part-time at her father’s barristerial Chambers in Minerinsk as a private secretary. She saved her money to afford tuition at the prestigious E.K. Lemenev School of Law in Shchyokhov, which she attended from 1992 to 1995.

Family and personal life
In a 2013 interview, Grigorievna revealed that her mother Yuliana had a profound impact on her socialist views and decision to pursue a political career: “My mother was born into the inequality, she lived through the inequality, and she knew a change was needed in our country to end the inequality. She raised me to be conscious of my privilege and utilise it to end the brick wall of class segregation. I knew politics was the answer.” Grigorievna’s mother was a member of a trade union all her working life and she impressed upon her an appreciation for. Since being widowed in 2010, Yuliana has remarried and resides primarily in Kogalma.

Grigorievna married the current First Gentleman Vassili Grigorievich (born 1971) in the summer of 1997, during her tenure as Representative of the 22nd Ward in the Minerinsk-Belgorod District Legislature. They have two sons together, Tanas (born 1998) and Styopa (born 2002). Grigorievich has a son from a previous relationship, named Petr (born 1995). Grigorievich is a qualified heart surgeon, originally from Voskrelchik. Although raised Eastern Orthodox Catholics, Grigorievna and her family are.

District Representative for Minerinsk-Belgorod's 22nd Ward
Grigorievna was elected to the Minerinsk-Belgorod District Legislature for the 22nd Ward in 1996, succeeding DSP Representative and mentor Anatoliy Paramorov who held the office for almost 25 years. Paramorov retired with high approval ratings and endorsed Grigorievna as a candidate, providing her with an elementary route to victory. She received 57.2% of the vote, with People of Yarova candidate Zhenka Vyalitsyn having acquired only 31.6% of electoral support at second place. She was the first woman ever elected to the 22nd Ward.

During her two terms in office, Grigorievna supported over 450 bills, most notably the abolition of the in 1997, a green urban renewal scheme in 2000, and the introduction of  in Minerinsk-Belgorod in 2003. She also fervently supported the extension and redevelopment of the Minerinsk-Belgorod Metro in 2002, which parachuted her to district-wide acclaim. Owing to her persistent demands to the federal government, the district’s infrastructure budget was increased three-fold. By late 2002, the city’s media held her as a favourite potential candidate for the 2004 chancellor election. The DSP quickly began to rally around her.

District Chancellor of Minerinsk-Belgorod
In February 2003, Grigorievna launched a private assessment poll across the district to see if she would have a realistic chance of succeeding in the election. The results obtained gave her sufficient confidence to do so and she received unanimous backing from all DSP representatives in the district. She announced her intention to stand in the election on 2 June 2003, just over a year before citizens would cast their votes in the ballot boxes. However, on 14 July DSP representative for the 4th ward Josef Kirdan publicly expressed his wishes to contend in the election prior to the deadline and the party was spiralled into a controversial convention. Grigorievna’s camp was mostly concentrated in the southern wards of Minerinsk, while Kirdan, a Belgorod native, enjoyed a high percentage of supporters in the northern wards. The convention was described by Grigorievna as: “Divisive, not only for the DSP, but for the cross-communities of Minerinsk and Belgorod.” The central wards proved to be crucial in securing the party’s nomination and the Union of Enterprise and Business in Minerinsk-Belgorod officially endorsed Grigorievna, favouring her track record in the District Legislature over Kirdan’s.

According to a string of polls, Kirdan, more decisively a centrist, appealed to the more conservative constituents – something which he referred to on numerous occasions during the election. However, at the convention on 7 November 2003, which was the first to be televised in the district’s history, Grigorievna’s speech was met with a markedly more thunderous applause, given her greater clarity on outlining her agenda if chancellor. She defeated Kirdan, with a share of 55.3% of the vote.

People of Yarova candidate Yuliy Chupov, representative of the 17th ward, emerged as Grigorievna’s primary opponent in the election for chancellor, but Grigorievna gained the vast majority of votes with an overwhelming 71.1%. Grigorievna attributed her success to the growing need for diversity in Yarovan politics, as well as due to Chupov's questionable recorded comments in the past about ethnic minorities.

Grigorievna served one full term as chancellor and sought successful re-election in 2008. Highlights of her chancellorship include the ‘Say No To Racism’ initiative (‘Противодействие расизму’), which sponsored youth reach organisations and set up awareness courses across the district, the ban on chewing gum, and the Coffee Cup Tax. In March 2010, halfway through her second term, she announced she would be running in the 2011 general election as a house representative candidate for the constituency of Minerinsk Yug. She resigned in September of that year to concentrate on her political campaign; DSP district representative Isabella Kaussouni was selected personally by Grigorievna to succeed her for the remainder of the term. Kaussouni stood in the chancellor election the following year but was unsuccessful.

House Representative for Minerinsk Yug
Grigorievna secured a triumph in the 2011 general election running for the Minerinsk Yug constituency with a share of 54.8% of the vote at a 73% turnout. Her experience as chancellor of the district was cited as having given her the upper hand by political pundits – in spite of the fact she once again was the first female and non-white representative. At her inaugural speech after being sworn in by the Vice President, Grigorievna stated: “I am truly humbled by the open display of love and support by my fellow citizens in this very special constituency. This marks a milestone moment, yet again, in my career and in the development of our nation, in which our proud multiculturalism and egalitarianism are reflected at the ballot boxes. I do not take credit for features which I was born with, the colour of my skin and my gender identity are only just that – characteristics. However, I am excited that the people of Minerinsk Yug could gaze beyond archaic prejudices and select a mixed race woman based on merit.” Minerinsk Yug, as a middle-class area, to-and-froed through the years between the DSP and the Conservative Party, Grigorievna succeeded People of Yarova house representative Lavrentiy Syukoyev. Against this background, she also spoke of a new progressive agenda: “The DSP is on the move; that is something I am certain of. We have won 209 seats in this election and we now have a real opportunity to push forward a radical, progressive platform across all districts. The buffoonery of the right-wing disbelievers and naysayers… the incompetence, the self-service. Let me be as clear as this mild day’s sky, Yarova has changed forever.”

DSP leader and then-President of the United Federated Districts Nikita Chekudayev offered Grigorievna a ministerial position in his cabinet, to which she declined in favour of rotating between Shchyokhov and her native Minerinsk for family reasons. She disclosed in an interview in 2015 that she had discussed with Chekudayev the possibility of running for party presidency prior to the 2015 general election from as early as mid-2011. Some senior members of the DSP allegedly doubted Grigorievna’s likelihood of succeeding in the nomination: “Of course, I will not call out the names of certain individuals… but they are very well-known… Some colleagues doubted my ability or chance of attaining the party nomination, never mind the actual federal presidency.” The media speculated that the people Grigorievna was referring to were former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Igor Germanovich and Minister for National Security and Defence Urvan Shultskiy.

While House Representative of Minerinsk Yug, Grigorievna drew up a successful federal bill which saw the regulation of pesticides and the prohibition of, owing to its high toxicity to populations. In 2012, she stood up against her own party colleagues and policy in the House of Representatives, when a forestry plantation scheme was scheduled to take place in the rural districts of Irinovskiy, Smirnova and Srednikovo. Farming communities protested the bill and lobbyists followed suit, arguing that once lands were forested they would remain so for generations and this negatively impacted agriculture. Grigorievna spoke passionately in the house, stating: “This initiative proposed by a small number of members in our party must not be authorised to receive the go-ahead. I have spoken with a multitude of representatives from the DSP, EP and even the opposition, the majority understand there is neither a rational reason nor long-term benefit for such a scheme. Coniferous, non-endemic afforestation for the purpose of exporting even more raw timber materials will be of zero economic interest to the UFDY. We export a sufficient amount and ought to be exploring further innovation and investment in agriculture, methods which are less detrimental to the environment and more efficient in production. Forestry plantations would render those in rural communities unemployed and will have profound ecological effects.” Grigorievna also jokingly remarked: “If the government wish to see afforestation, then let it be permanent plantations of native species and let it not be for short-term commercial, gluttonous purposes.” The bill did not go ahead and she was warmly received at an agricultural event in Smirnova later that year.

As Grigorievna had campaigned for in the past as representative in the Minerinsk-Belgorod legislature and as chancellor of said district, she stood at the forefront of bills containing green city schemes and other environmentalist policies.

Presidential campaign
In June 2014, upon Nikita Chekudayev’s announcement that he would not be seeking re-election for party presidency and thus, the federal presidency, Grigorievna issued a public statement detailing of her intention to run for the party leadership. Grigorievna selected long-time ally Emma Louise Anrep as her vice-presidential nominee, the first time in Yarovan history two females ran on a major party ticket. Erik Meselev, along with Yuriy Kurakin, stood against the Grigorievna-Anrep camp in the party nominations. Meselev and Kurakin only secured 45.8% of the grassroots membership vote and 4 endorsements from the party committee out of a total 12. Grigorievna was voted in as the DSP’s president on 8 September 2014 and was formally inaugurated three days later on 11 September. Meselev provided a speech at the event congratulating her. Campaign promises made by Grigorievna included a heavier emphasis on tackling gender-related issues such as the pay gap, a comprehensive policy paper on combatting climate change and the obtainment of a majority-DSP government. Chekudayev, then-acting president of the party and federal president, was reported to have said of Grigorievna’s victory: “Generational change is undoubtedly needed in our party and it is high-time for us old folks to finally step aside!”

The Grigorievna-Anrep presidential campaign was launched on 3 November 2014 and would be faced with primary competition from Tanas Gruzdev (with vice-presidential candidate Pasha Lytskiy) of the People of Yarova. The tactics utilised by the People of Yarova in the 2015 general election – namely, the racial ‘smearing’ of Grigorievna and allegations of “treasonous communist sympathies” – are widely agreed to have ultimately resulted in their defeat. Gruzdev’s character and track record of dealings with the controversial Yarovar National Defence Front centred in the three televised debates, aired on the 13 December 2014, 17 January 2015 and 21 February 2015 respectively. On the second debate, the ethnic origins of Grigorievna were brought into question, as Gruzdev faced remarks he had previously made: “Look at her! Look at her! This woman is disingenuous, she is not a Yarovar!” Gruzdev vehemently denied responsibility for such statements, in spite of a verified video recording indicating otherwise. In response to the People of Yarova bringing her race into the equation, Grigorievna noted: “We live in a wonderful, proud melting-pot of different cultures and ethnic groups, this is not a new reality for any of us. I hail from the great Yarovan city of Minerinsk-Belgorod, where I was raised by my Yarovan mother and father. I invite Mr. Gruzdev to come on over and meet the real people of Minerinsk. Maybe they could share with him some wisdom about what it means to be a proud Minerinsk Yarovar. ” She quickly added: “Mr. Gruzdev is of that old, troubling mindset of the colonial age, which dictates that anyone who is not a white Christian who speaks Yarovan at home is not, in fact, Yarovan. I challenge that mindset and I say to those of you at home – each and every one of us who possess citizenship in this country is Yarovan – you are Yarovan. We are all Yarovars.”

On 13 March, the Grigorievna-Anrep camp received 45.49% of the popular vote, whereas Gruzdev-Lytskiy received 32.94%. In order to unite the Yarovan Left and create a government “elected by the majority,” Grigorievna entered a coalition arrangement with Isaak Nikishin-Svoburg’s Ecology Party, as her predecessor had done. Grigorievna was elected President of the United Federated Districts of Yarova on 11 May 2015. According to official statistics released by the DSP, the 2015 presidential campaign cost a total of ₲6,190,915,356 (744,995,831 USD), which included federal party spending and outside advertisements.

Early actions
Grigorievna was inaugurated on 11 May 2015. During her first week in office, she signed a total of four executive orders: renationalisation order of Air Yarova and Yarovan Railways, introduction of the Altekst Policy (go-ahead for federal funding of nonprofit environmentalist NGOs), interim procedures in anticipation of restructuring the International Pact on Defeating Climate Change and the rescindment of marijuana from the federal list of prohibited substances, which paved the way for legalisation in the House of Representatives and federal medicinal research. The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed by People of Yarova House Representatives regarding the legalisation of marijuana, stating the executive order was constitutional. Virtually all of the executive orders were protested against by the People of Yarova and right-wing press in Yarova.

Economy and trade
Grigorievna is a vocal proponent of, as was her predecessor Nikita Chekudayev, whose footsteps she has largely followed where economic decisions are concerned. The renationalisation of major transportation companies at the beginning of her term in office was seen as a significant step in moving the United Federated Districts back to more hard-line leftist economics. Chekudayev overturned the privatisation of the United Mail Company and halted People of Yarova-led moves to place fees and loans on Third Level education, but did not shift Yarova entirely to a socialist economic system during his two terms in government. Grigorievna explained Chekudayev’s reluctance to do so: “The reality is, it is not humanly possible to reverse overnight the destruction corporate capitalism has inflicted on our national economy. The DSP’s objective for years has been to gradually bring private companies under greater democratic control, through realistic regulatory measures and tax incentives which can encourage such companies to work in the best interests of the public. It must be emphasised that the full implementation of a democratic socialist economic system will take decades.” Grigorievna spoke in support of Chekudayev’s efforts to nationalise Yarovan natural resources and has continued his policy of setting up worker’s co-operatives in the consumer-goods sector.

In relation to employment, which has observed a steady 0.8% decrease since 2015, Grigorievna has sought to eradicate gender pay gaps and gender-based discrimination in the workplace with the passing of the Gender Employment Equity Act. Grigorievna also set up a new strategy to address gender employment discrimination, which set a gender participation quota on corporate boards and launched a ‘Women Youth Enterprise’ initiative to offer encouragement to young female entrepreneurs. Along with the Minimum Wage Revision Act, which increased the national minimum wage from 15 USD an hour to 21 USD, the government submitted a bill on shortening the working day to just six and a half hours. The Standardisation of Federal Employment and Worker's Welfare Act was passed in April 2017, despite intense scrutiny even within the confines of the DSP. The Act, in effect, makes the reduction of working hours mandatory in federal employment, but does not dictate to private companies; however, many companies have followed suit with government recommendations in a bid to increase productivity and the well-being of employees. Considered ‘experimental’ by many, the Act has paved the way for similar legislation in other states.

National security and defence
Grigorievna’s presidency has been notable for its alteration of longstanding DSP government policy on military expenditure, with a significant increase in federal funding of the Armed Forces since 2015 – from 0.48% in 2015 to 2.0% in 2019. Referring to more frequent paramilitary activity in Kropokhovo Oblast as a fair justification, the Grigorievna administration has introduced extensive measures. Grigorievna has described domestic terrorism in the south of the country as a “venom in the very bloodstream of the nation, one which threatens to devastate us.” Such counter-terrorism measures have emphasised foreign co-operation and prevention, but have also included the expansion of the VVSY Sosotroitsk and VVSY Yessentuki Air Force bases, and the strengthening of Land Force numbers stationed near the Kartvelian reservations. In a bid to put a stop to Kartvelian nationalist paramilitaries, in November 2018 Grigorievna made calls for a “new Abaksamir Agreement.”