Ms. Yulia Tymoshenko, political process or real abuse of power?

25 Jun 2011

It will not be easy for Kiev’s Court to determine whether Ms. Yulia Tymoshenko is victim of a plot or she is really guilty. The former heroine of the pro-European Orange Revolution in November 2004 is accused of “abuse of power.” In 2009 she signed directly with her Russian colleague Mr. Vladimir Putin contracts for the supply of gas, causing around 130 million euros in damages to the national Treasury, say the investigators. The hot climate, not only for the temperature, will not help the judges.
 If convicted the former Ukrainian “Joan of Arc” could face up to 10 years in prison. The European Union and the United States have sent their observers. There are already numerous dossiers on members of the former government and former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko was arrested for “embezzlement”. Parties close to Ms. Tymoshenko accused the Russophone archenemy President Viktor Janukovich of wanting to turn himself into a dictator and former prime minister has asked the European Court of Human Rights to rule, since the charges were politically motivated. “This is just a farce,” she went down hard early in the process. This is a revenge of the “coward” Yanukovich against her.
 The definition of the price of gas has always been problematic. There are many factors that contribute to shape it in a little transparency. Since the collapse of the USSR Ukrainians and Russians have been constantly on stormy relationship, going so far as to fight two “wars”. Pipelines were blocked twice in 2006 and in 2009 and Europe was left frozen in winter.
 President Yanukovich assured Western capitals that justice and politics are well separated in his country. In an interview with a French newspaper the Ukrainian leader said that the price set in 2009 was “unfair.” Kiev accepted to pay $ 450 per thousand cubic meters, when at the free market it was 179. “Today – asserted Yanukovich – should be less than $ 200.”

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