[3] Yuri Meshkov was born on October 25, 1945, in Synelnykove,[4] Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Ukraine).
Meshkov was actively involved in various leadership roles, such as being one of the leaders of the Crimea department of the All-Union historical-enlightening society "Memorial" and serving as the president of the Crimean Federation of kickboxing.
During the second round of the 1994 Crimean presidential elections, Meshkov secured a victory with 72.9 percent of the votes and became the sole president of the republic.
[8][9] Yuri Meshkov's primary political agenda was to establish much closer ties with the Russian Federation, potentially leading to the reunification of Crimea with Russia.
Meshkov attempted to initiate a number of measures to prepare Crimea for future integration with Russia; though he was able to align Crimea's time zone with that of Russia he was unable to fully implement his platform nor obtain the support of Russian president Boris Yeltsin for Crimean accession to the Russian Federation.
[10] In response to his efforts, in 1995 the Ukrainian parliament scrapped the Crimean Constitution, abolished the post of president on March 17 and moved to depose and exile Meshkov from the country.