While Wladimir Klitschko may be the reigning World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion, his older brother Vitali, who last fought over a year ago, has grander aspirations. Vitali Klitschko has announced his intentions to run for the Ukrainian presidency in 2015, reported The Los Angeles Times.
The three-time World Boxing Council champion declared his candidacy in front of the Ukrainian Parliament on Thursday, ESPN reported.
Klitschko emerged as a top opposition leader since elected to parliament last fall, and has served as head of the Ukranian Democratic for Reforms party, better known as UDAR.
Founded in 2010, and billed as pro-Western, UDAR's platform intends "to liberate its citizens from excessive state control and to limit government intervention into private life. A citizen, not an official, must be the pinnacle of the state pyramid. The government apparatus must serve the citizens and be fully controlled by them," according to its web site.
Klitschko says he hopes to be the antidote to current President Viktor Yanukovych, a man he feels has adopted 'authoritarian' methods, which run contrary to democratic ideals.
"We want to build democracy in Ukraine,. In Ukraine, you can buy everyone. You can buy every position, every judge, you buy every court decision. The biggest enemy to democracy is that there are no clear rules and so much corruption. Ukrainian politics is simple business and we have to change that," Klitschko recently told ESPN.com.
Klitschko did not win in the 2006 Kiev mayoral elections, but was elected to city council soon thereafter, before becoming a founder of UDAR four years later.
"It's tough job, to be honest," Klitschko conceded. "I have learned lessons about Ukrainian politics, and I want to make changes in Ukraine. I am not alone. Together, me and many other people, we have a vision. We are fighting for changes in Ukraine and real democracy in Ukraine," he also told ESPN.com.
With his political ambitions intact, Klitschko may soon retire from a sport where he amassed a 45-2 record. Despite a controversial loss to heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in 2003, Klitschko gained international respect for his guts and determination in the ring. Lewis, incidentally "has told Russian promoters that he will come back to fight [at age 48] one of the Klitschko brothers for the biggest purse in boxing history," according to The Daily Mail.
