Western Concern Grows Over Tymoshenko Arrest..bail requests rejected

[Jack]

Some of today's Headlines.



Italian foreign minister says Tymoshenko verdict unacceptable
Today at 18:17 Rome – Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has expressed his disappointment by the conviction of former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko.

"Seven years in prison is an unacceptable sentence," he told Italian reporters.

The minister noted that it would difficult for Italy to develop relations with Ukraine due to this situation.

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French foreign ministry sees political bias in trial of Tymoshenko
Today at 19:05 | Interfax-Ukraine Paris – French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has described the guilty verdict in a criminal case opened against former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko as unfair and politically motivated.

"This verdict does not correspond to Ukraine's international obligations and confirms the unfairness and political motivation of this process," the minister said on October 12.

Juppe stressed that France respects the independence of Ukrainian courts, but urges Kyiv to observe international standards and obligations.

"I demand that the Ukrainian authorities fully respect the law and obligations before the Council of Europe, where Ukraine is presiding over the committee of ministers," he said.


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Statement of the Ukrainian American Bar Association on the sentencing of Yulia Tymoshenko
The Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA) since its inception has consistently advanced the rule of law, and condemned its infringements without regard to who has abridged the principle or where. As such, the UABA strenuously condemns the sentencing of Julia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison by the Ukrainian court on October 11, 2011.

The agreement was executed openly and publicly debated at the time, and no fraud or collusion was ever alleged even during the Tymoshenko trial. The former Prime Minister's actions, therefore, constituted a political act involving another sovereign state. If the former Prime Minister exceeded her authority, the Ukrainian judicial system or Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine could have, and can still, act to void and repudiate the agreement. However, ultra vires acts, untainted by fraud, cannot be sustained as being criminal under any interpretation or view of the rule of law in any democratic society.

It is, therefore, with deep regret that the UABA must recognize the conviction and sentencing of Julia Tymoshenko as politically-motivated and a gross violation of fundamental principles of justice. Unless this miscarriage of justice is promptly reversed, the Ukrainian judicial system will stand convicted as an arm of a totalitarian state, and Ukraine could be precluded from furthering its integration into the European community.

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Lugar: Tymoshenko arrest ‘incompatible with our values’
Today at 17:04 |  U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Dick Lugar is the latest in a sea of foreign officials issuing sharp warnings to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych over the Oct. 11 verdict of his political rival, Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Today’s verdict against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is a major disappointment to all friends of Ukraine,” Lugar said in a statement issued late on Oct. 11.
“It is likely to further distance Ukraine from its stated ambition to join the community of European democracies.The Euro-Atlantic community should speak in unity that this proceeding has been incompatible with our values,” he added.


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OSCE demands transparency during appeals process on Tymoshenko case
Today at 16:06 | Interfax-Ukraine Vienna – The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) chairmanship has urged Ukraine to observe the legislation during the appeals process on a criminal case opened against former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, the EFE agency reported on October 11.

"It is now vital that the appeals process be conducted openly and fairly and in line with the highest standards to restore the trust of the international community," the agency cited the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis as saying.

"Ukraine needs to show the utmost transparency in the conduct of its judicial processes," he said.


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European Parliament calls on Ukrainian authorities to respect democracy
Today at 17:54 | Interfax-Ukraine Brussels - President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek has again expressed concern about the situation with the rule of law in Ukraine in connection with the verdict against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and called on the Ukrainian authorities to respect the principles that are a prerequisite for the signing of the association agreement.

Buzek made such a statement in Brussels on Wednesday, while opening a plenary session of the European Parliament.

He noted that the news of the verdict was met with "great regret," and again said that he was concerned about a politically motivated decision, which, in his opinion, "demonstrates the selective application of the law in this country."



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EU may take back invitation to Yanukovych to Brussels
Today at 14:35 | Interfax-Ukraine Brussels, Oct.12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Union does not rule out the possibility of applying diplomatic pressure on Ukraine with a view to cancel the sentence of Yulia Tymoshenko, EU Observer Web site reported on Wednesday.

In this regard, the EU may decide to withdraw the invitation to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to visit Brussels, where he is scheduled to meet on Oct. 20 with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Council President Herman van Rompuy.


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European Parliament to hold urgent debate on Ukraine
Today at 12:55 | Interfax-Ukraine Brussels, Oct.12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Parliament will hold a special debate on Ukraine. MEPs insist on the participation of EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton.

The European Parliament changed on Tuesday the agenda of its Wednesday's plenary meeting in connection with the conviction of Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Interfax-Ukraine learned on Wednesday at the European Parliament.


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White House: Release Tymoshenko
Yesterday at 21:33 |
The United States is deeply disappointed with the conviction and sentencing of former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko through a politically motivated prosecution.

The charges against Mrs. Tymoshenko and the conduct of her trial, as well as the prosecution of other opposition leaders and members of the preceding government, have raised serious concerns about the Government of Ukraine’s commitment to democracy and rule of law.

The United States strongly supports the Ukrainian peoples’ goal of becoming a democratic and prosperous European state, and remains dedicated to strengthening bilateral cooperation based on shared values and shared interests.

Ukraine, however, cannot reach this goal without redoubled efforts to protect and advance democracy and the rule of law for all its citizens. For these reasons, the United States urges the release of Mrs. Tymoshenko and the other political leaders and former government officials, and believes that they should have an unrestricted ability to participate fully in political life, including next year’s parliamentary elections.


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Klitschko meets with McCain to discuss deterioration of democracy in Ukraine
Today at 11:30 Editor's Note: The press release is from the UDAR Party led by heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko.


Washington, DC – UDAR Leader Vitaly Klitschko met with former American presidential candidate and US Senator John McCain at his office in the United States Capital. Central focus of the discussion between the two politicians was the Ukrainian court decision sentencing former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years of imprisonment.

Klitschko stressed that bad government policies should be evaluated by voters during free and fair elections. Courts of law should not be used in political show trials against the policies of former officials. Klitschko said he was concerned that Ukraine’s government was again playing with the rules of the game to fulfill their political objectives rather than providing citizens with a fair set of rules that would allow them to prosper. Changes to the Constitution; amendments to the tax code; prohibiting free expressions of speech and public gatherings; as well as proposed changes to the parliamentary election law suggests those in power today are doing everything to manipulate the rules to stay in power longer. Their actions have nothing to do with improving the lives of Ukrainians today or in the future.


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Three opposition TV channels off air in Kharkiv
Oct 7 at 02:15 | Svitlana Tuchynska Three opposition television channels have been taken off the airwaves in Kharkiv amid controversial circumstances, leaving activists complaining that Ukraine’s second-largest city has no channels to report critically on the pro-presidential municipal authorities.

The A/TVK and Fora channels, co-owned by former Kharkiv Oblast Governor Arsen Avakov, a member of the opposition Batkivshchyna Party, were cut off on Sept. 14. ATN, another Avakov channel, was turned off in August.

The disappearance of the channel is the latest jolt for Ukraine’s embattled media. Ukraine has dropped in international rankings of media freedoms since President Viktor Yanukovych took office on Feb. 25, 2010, amid accusations from critics that television channels and newspapers are following an increasingly pro-government line.


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Tymoshenko verdict reveals thuggish behavior
Today at 11:47 | Askold S. Lozynskyj The conviction and sentencing of Yulia Tymoshenko represents Viktor Yanukovych’s Rubicon. Despite both strong admonishment and gentle prodding from the international community, Yanukovych arrogantly flaunted his power and did the wrong thing. True, he said he would during his independence speech. Still hope remained eternal at least until the verdict.

The judge who rendered the verdict and passed sentence was merely an agent, and primitive at that. There was no “prima facie” criminality on Tymoshenko’s part. The criminal complaint itself was defective in that regard so the judge took it upon himself to prove abuse of power by then Prime Minister Tymoshenko which resulted in financial damage to the Ukrainian state from the 2009 gas accord between Ukraine and Russia.

The financial facts belie the verdict. True the price of gas increased but the quota decreased dramatically and the corrupt intermediary was cut off. Ukraine lessened its dependency on Russian gas, substantially lowering the mandatory purchase quota and thus decreased its gas expense. This financial benefit was reported by Ernst & Young. The judge ignored the expert conclusion and disingenuously attributed the lesser expenses to energy conservation.

[BC]

Is interesting that a US firm performed this 'international audit'

Jeez.. who can you trust anymore?

http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=148&listid=126561

http://www.bakutoday.net/international-auditors-found-abuse-tymoshenko-at-400-million-ukraine.html

Even 'Transparency International' seems to distance themselves a bit by more or less stating that it's improper for a current government to audit a past government and in the same statement stating:

"The country is on the bottom of global corruption index. So, in my opinion, if Ms. Tymoshenko was misusing money, she should answer for this. But in this case all her predecessors should be punished"

In other words they are all corrupt so what the heck.

Who is in power is in power and will do whatever necessary to stay that way.. that's democracy at work.

Although more subtle, it's not that different in the west.

[BillyB]

I guess in a democracy a prime-minister has to receive approval from the President, Cabinet and/or the parliament to sign documents.l
If a signature is done without this approval, the signing has been done outside the democratic limits the function of Prime Minister has.

Lets say you're right. At the time Yulia signed the energy agreement, the rest of the government should've protested then, not now with the opposition in power.
 
 If I remember correctly, back then Russia was cutting or threatening to cut off the energy to Ukraine and Europe effectively starving them. That give Russia the upper hand to overcharge their customers. Everybody probably overpaid for energy back then. The question should become whether or not Yulia pocketed got personal kickbacks that encouraged her to overpay.

[Shadow]

Lets say you're right. At the time Yulia signed the energy agreement, the rest of the government should've protested then, not now with the opposition in power.
 
 If I remember correctly, back then Russia was cutting or threatening to cut off the energy to Ukraine and Europe effectively starving them. That give Russia the upper hand to overcharge their customers. Everybody probably overpaid for energy back then. The question should become whether or not Yulia pocketed got personal kickbacks that encouraged her to overpay.

There is not question. Al Capone got put in to jail for tax evasion, not for his other crimes.
In this case they also take the crime that is easiest to get a conviction from.

My main objection is the incredibly hypocrisy in the media inspired or not by the political points of view. People cheer one trial and boo another one depending on the alliance of the regime, not depending on the factual issues.
This gives the impression that crimes are forgiven as long as you side with the right people, yet crimes are found if you are caught with the wrong people. Pure corruption, and this should be fought instead of approved.

It is up to the people in a country to keep their government in check, and the protests in Ukrainian newspapers show that at least freedom of press still is present.

If Timochenko is released, that means Yanukovich will have her in his pocket.

[Jack]

If Timochenko is released, that means Yanukovich will have her in his pocket.

Hey Shadow.   We will disagree with this particular statement.

[ML]

Interesting conundrum here for Ukraine.

We in  the West keep demanding that they clean up the corruption situation that exists with government officials.

So they try to get started in doing this . . . and then we complain that they did it.

Aren't they all corrupt?  So shouldn't they all be sentenced to prison?
What's wrong with getting started; even if only one at a time?

Sure it's politically motivated.  But when the power shift occurs, then some from the ousted parties can be jailed.

[ML]

In very simplistic terms, there are two basic questions/situations.

1. If Yulia exceeded her authority by signing some contracts with Russia to help solve an immediate and pressing problem for Ukraine, then this just seems to be a byproduct of a mixup in authority, etc.  If not her signing as PM, then who would sign?  If this is the true scenario, then the law should be changed, her conviction voided, etc.

2. If Yulia personally benefited monetarily from any of her government actions, then she should serve time in prison.

From all the words written; I am not sure which of 1 or 2 applies.

[Muzh]

There is not question. Al Capone got put in to jail for tax evasion, not for his other crimes.
In this case they also take the crime that is easiest to get a conviction from.

My main objection is the incredibly hypocrisy in the media inspired or not by the political points of view. People cheer one trial and boo another one depending on the alliance of the regime, not depending on the factual issues.
This gives the impression that crimes are forgiven as long as you side with the right people, yet crimes are found if you are caught with the wrong people. Pure corruption, and this should be fought instead of approved.

It is up to the people in a country to keep their government in check, and the protests in Ukrainian newspapers show that at least freedom of press still is present.

If Timochenko is released, that means Yanukovich will have her in his pocket.

I said it before and I'll say it again, Goldilocks is NOT going to walk.
 
http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine_security_service_targets_tymoshenko_fresh_criminal_charges/24358654.html

[BillyB]

My main objection is the incredibly hypocrisy in the media inspired or not by the political points of view. People cheer one trial and boo another one depending on the alliance of the regime, not depending on the factual issues.

This gives the impression that crimes are forgiven as long as you side with the right people, yet crimes are found if you are caught with the wrong people. Pure corruption, and this should be fought instead of approved.

I understand the media have their agendas and favorites. I find myself routinely throwing out jounalists opinions from the articles they write in the newspaper I read everyday.
 
What is worse than corruption is that justice being applied unevenly. Regardless if one is conservative or liberal, one should appreciate the fact the other exists to help create checks and balances. Too much to the right and you got Hitler. Too much to the left you got Stalin.
 
If Yulia used her office for personal financial gain, she should be punished. So should a lot of politicians over there. So far what I understand is that if anybody is a serious contender to Yanukovych, they get thrown in jail or poisoned.
 

If Timochenko is released, that means Yanukovich will have her in his pocket.

Yanukovich is doing a good job discouraging anybody from competing against him ever again. Jack doesn't agree with you and Yanukovich probably doesn't either so Yanukovich needs to lock her up longer.
 

I said it before and I'll say it again, Goldilocks is NOT going to walk.
 
http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine_security_service_targets_tymoshenko_fresh_criminal_charges/24358654.html

I guess this will be the trial to figure out if she finally pocketed any money? One way to get rid of Yulia's sympathizers is to prove she stole money. If the justice system doesn't do a good job over there, it can backfire and gain Yulia more supporters.

[Muzh]

 
I guess this will be the trial to figure out if she finally pocketed any money? One way to get rid of Yulia's sympathizers is to prove she stole money. If the justice system doesn't do a good job over there, it can backfire and gain Yulia more supporters.

Uh, Billy.
 
Are we talking about the same country? I mean, you are mentioning justice system and fair play.

[mendeleyev]

- Negotiated by PM of Ukraine and PM of Russia.

- Approved by parliaments, RADA of Ukraine and DUMA of Russia.

- Signed into law by both presidents, Ukraine and Russia.


Yanukovich saw two opportunities:

1- A verdict gives him latitude to declare the agreement invalid, thereby forcing Russia back to the negotiating table. With the EU beckoning and Ukraine holding out so far on the "Customs Union" with Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan-others, he now has more leverage to use in new negotiations with Putin.

2- The same trial gets rid of the most pesky political opponent, with her sitting in jail just long enough to finish this term and run again for another. Taken right out of Putin's playbook regarding Mikhail Khodorkovsky.


Whether she is guilty of some kind of stealing or is an angel in white robes is simply immaterial. This trial was and the verdict is about the two points above and that is it. Period.

Now that the Thug saw how easy that first trial was, will there be additional charges against Khodorkovsky Tmyoshenko?

You can bet on it.

[JohnDearGreen]

Whether she is guilty of some kind of stealing or is an angel in white robes is simply immaterial. This trial was and the verdict is about the two points above and that is it. Period.

My guess is she made a few secret under-the-table deals or promises with Putin.   A small amount of evidence may be good for future negotiation with Putin/Russia.  But Ukraine is still too dependent on Russia to publicly reveal such secret deals during or after the trial and cause major issues with Putin. 


Shortly after the gas deal, Yushchenko's heavily armed swat team stormed into Naftogaz looking for papers and evidence about the deal(s).  If secret deals were made and known by the major players, then the trial would just be a token process.   And a token process was all it was.  Maverick didn't go there to lose.  They new they were going to win this case before it began.

[mendeleyev]

Has nothing to do with evidence and everything to do with the 2 points listed. Yushchenko as you may remember was battling Tymoshenko as part of their falling out. He did however, sign off on the agreement, no matter how many swat teams he sent later, his fingerprints were all over the deal.

They new they were going to win this case before it began.

In the Soviet world of which Yanukovich was a part, this was similar to what was called a "telephone verdict." At the end of all the proceedings the judge (someone a panel of judges) called for a recess during which time he either made a call, or was called. At that point he was either told what the verdict would be, or in a case like this one the call would confirm that there had been no changes and to proceed as planned.

[JohnDearGreen]

1- A verdict gives him latitude to declare the agreement invalid, thereby forcing Russia back to the negotiating table.

I think the 2009 agreement has already been renegotiated during the April 21, 2010 deal between Yanukovych/Medvedev in Kharkov.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/russianow/opinion/7803112/Behind-the-Russia-Ukraine-deal-on-gas.html


Russian Natural Gas Monthly Price - US Dollars per Thousands of Cubic Meters

"Jan-2009","576.72"
"Apr-2009","309.6"
"Aug-2009","222.48"
"Jan-2010","273.24"
"Aug-2010","308.52"
"Apr-2011","361.08"
"Sep-2011","399.96"

[Shadow]

Hey Shadow.   We will disagree with this particular statement.

Probably we will continue to disagree, but the thing is that Yanukovich will not release her unless he sees it as profitable for his own situation.
PRessure from the EU will not work, as he will by now realise that Ukraine has a long way to go before even being considered as possible candidate, as they would hardly be a country that will contribute to the deficit.
Russia would be more likely as candidate at this time, as adding Russia to the EU would mean a lot of extra money. Not that I for a second believe this to happen any time soon.

So in order to release Timochenko, he would need to get something more as the thanks from the EU. A secret deal on that she will admit defeat after the next elections would probably work, which I mean by having her in his pocket.

[mendeleyev]

Dear John, this is the deal that keeps changing. For Russia, it seems like Ukraine is making a deal of jello--it keeps moving all over the place.

Yesterday, President Medvedev held a meeting of the Russian Security Council and the topic was how to get gas to Europe without interruptions. Normally this would be a topic for the Energy Ministers, but we should most certainly read something into the fact that he convened the Security Council for this matter. No one needs to translate the implications of what that means.

Here is what the President said to open the meeting:

Sadly, a number of recent events have created problems for cooperation in the gas sector. They include normative, contractual, and also organisational issues. I therefore would like to hear today from the energy minister Sergei Shmatko and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller on their proposals on how we should go about organising our relations with our European partners, taking into account implementation of the ‘third energy package’ and its rules. Naturally, we will fulfill all existing contracts and respect all of the agreements that have been in place for some time now and have always provided a solid basis for our energy cooperation. But in the interests of energy security, we need at the same time to think about the future.


I can tell you this: the Russians are convinced that the trial was about the gas deal. Since Medvedev and Yanukovich have met several times recently, Yanukovich has had ample opportunity to convince Russia otherwise.

He hasn't.

[Boethius]

Yushchenko, Baloga and Zvarych (there were others, Firtash, for example, was involved peripherally, but they were the "prime" players, especially Zvarych) were selling gas paid for by the Ukrainian government at a profit in Europe.  Before the contract was signed, they had stored gas across Ukraine, waiting to sell it for hundreds of millions in profit which they would personally pocket, while Ukrainian orphans and the elderly shivered.  Tymoshenko was not a party to this, but I have no doubt she knew about it.  That's why she impudently signed a contract that Parliament had rejected, and I suspect that is why Yushchenko signed it.

[BC]

Capitalism at it's best.. just a matter of figuring out who's pockets are filled the most.

As I see it, UA was afforded cheap gas by RU but as Boethius mentioned the price differential created opportunity to profit.

All I know is that whatever deal was made or whomever profited the most, shipments last year went without interruption.

Neither EU or RU wants interruptions.. they could not care less who is in the middle and both seem to be supporting the status quo, pointing fingers at anyone who attempts to disrupt.

[JohnDearGreen]

"But it is not only Tymoshenko’s fate that is now in the balance. The judge and prosecutor at her trial must also be uneasy. Most of the men who did Stalin’s dirty work in the purge trials of the 1930s, as well as the prosecutors and judges of the other great show trials of the communist era, came to a grim end. Genrikh Yagoda, the people’s commissar for internal affairs who organized the first great purge trial of party members in August 1936, was himself arrested, given a show trial in March 1938, then immediately executed. His successor, Nikolai Yezhov, faced exactly the same fate. He was one of Stalin’s bloodiest hatchet men but was sentenced and executed in February 1940."

"Given this history, Tymoshenko’s judge Rodion Kireyev and prosecutor Oleksandr Mykytenko should probably be worried about what the future holds. All the more so because there is every sign that Yanukovych is readying to hang them out to dry. The president’s spokesman announced recently that Yanukovych was supposedly annoyed that charges were brought in the first place, “without the president’s knowledge.” Indeed, should a guilty verdict and prison sentence be imposed, it’s likely that Yanukovych and his government will do all they can to distance themselves from the judge and prosecutors. Physical death may not be in the offing, but career death may well be. "

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/09/former-ukrainian-prime-minister-yulia-tymoshenko-s-show-trial.html

(article by Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter)

[ECOCKS]

You really think these guys (and gals) remember that or are thinking that far ahead?

I don't think any of them have given this a thought or they would  never have gotten to where they are today.

[Boethius]

This post in the comments section was better than the article:


Ukraine has spiraled downward ever since the end of the Orange Revolution.  The inept leadership of President Viktor Yushchenko and the histrionic confrontational premierships and opposition by Prime Minister Tymoshenko led to indifference and disgust among Ukrainian voters.  In addition, in his ineptness, President Yushchenko brought Mr. Viktor Yanukovych back to political life in return for his assistance to control his nemesis, Ms. Tymoshenko.   
 
When the presidential elections finally came around in 2010, the electorate selected what was in their mind the least odoriferous of three evils.   
 
Today, we are seeing the current generation of leaders destroying each other and probably taking their country with them.  In the last six years, every month has seen a new low.  There is no end in sight. 
 
Ukraine, because of centuries of individual and group subservience and division, has no leadership class or tradition.  It has no mechanism of having political, scientific, or literary talent rise to the top.  Ukrainians and their politicians do not know or recognize the differences between anarchy, demagoguery, authoritarianism, and leadership.  It is not part of their ken.  Governance is alien to them.  Laws are made to be broken or ignored.  While Russians generally support Putinism, Ukrainians remain confused as to what they seek in a leader. 
 
It is as if one student from Ukraine put it, Ukraine had to evolve from a leaderless Indian Reservation or Bantustan into a modern nation state with all its necessary functioning components.  It is a huge leap forward that will take generations. 
 
In addition, Ukraine has a tiny but insatiably acquisitive (so called business class) that is living off the country without modernizing it.  It too is holding the country back. The result is that millions of Ukrainians have emigrated to work and live abroad.  Ukraine has, in fact, the worst demographic statistics of any major country in the world. 
 
There is little that the West or the Democrats can do since the so-called Democrats are part of the problem.  At the same, this inchoate leadership uses its internal dysfunctionality to prevent economic and political absorption by the Russian Federation. 
 
On the other hand, the West using its best universities can educate a new generation of leaders who will eventually coalesce and hopefully provide a new vision of Ukraine. This is a low key, inexpensive long term strategy.  Such an approach may well provide transformative leaders who will have seen the world and benefited from a world class education.  Only they will be able to generate a modern vision for Ukraine and eventually hopefully right the course of the country.   
 
But this will take long term and tenacious vision, patience, time and hard work.
 
We at the USA/USA Program are doing that.  Friend us on Facebook. 
 
Bohdan A Oryshkevich, 
Founder, USA/USA Program
http://on.fb.me/jiWGAg 

[ECOCKS]

Yeah, they almost can't give away chances of education.

The problem is very, VERY few care to take the time to go to school and learn. Instead, they are more intent on getting their piece of the crumbs still left on the table or building a boat to get off the island....

[Jack]

The president’s spokesman announced recently that Yanukovych was supposedly annoyed that charges were brought in the first place, “without the president’s knowledge.” Indeed, should a guilty verdict and prison sentence be imposed, it’s likely that Yanukovych and his government will do all they can to distance themselves from the judge and prosecutors.

If anybody, anyone believes this, please take the time to make out a Christmas list, address it to Santa personally, ask or a new Mercedes, a new yacht, your own personal island in the South Pacific and I promise that you will receive each of these gifts.

[Muzh]

If anybody, anyone believes this, please take the time to make out a Christmas list, address it to Santa personally, ask or a new Mercedes, a new yacht, your own personal island in the South Pacific and I promise that you will receive each of these gifts.

Jack, don't you know this is the first step to eliminate the judge and prosecutor while smelling like a rose?
 
Days of Stalin are back.

[Jack]

Latest news,.....


EU: Yanukovych trip to Brussels canceled (updated)
Yesterday at 19:18 | Associated Press The European Union on Tuesday delayed a key visit by the Ukrainian president after signals that the country's jailed former prime minister, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, will not be released soon.

The decision could strengthen Russia's hand in trying to lure Ukraine back into its sphere of influence. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych met with his Russian counterpart Tuesday to discuss economic cooperation and natural gas imports.

Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison last week on charges of abuse of office in the signing of a natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009. She dismissed her trial as Yanukovych's attempt to bar her from parliamentary elections next year. The U.S. and the EU have condemned the conviction as politically motivated.

Yanukovych had been slated to travel to Brussels Thursday for talks on a long-awaited free-trade agreement with the 27-nation bloc, but the EU announced that the trip has been postponed until "a later occasion when the conditions will be more conducive to making progress on the bilateral relations."

"Ukraine has to make improvement on important issues, such as the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary," said Dirk De Backer, spokesman for EU President Herman Van Rompuy.

The postponement of Yanukovych's visit to Brussels follows indications from Kiev that Tymoshenko would not be quickly released based on legal amendments that would turn her misdemeanor from a criminal offense to a milder economic violation as her supporters and Western officials had hoped.

Pro-Yanukovych lawmakers refused to consider a relevant bill Tuesday morning and Yanukovych indicated in an interview with U.S. and European newspapers published Tuesday that passing those legal reforms would take time.

Speaking after Yanukovych's trip was put off, Oleksandr Yefremov, the head of the pro-Yanukovych faction in parliament, took an even harder stance, saying his party would not back the legal change altogether.

"First of all, we don't change legislation for one person," Yefremov said in a statement posted on the party's Web site. "Second, if we annul that legal provision, we will automatically absolve public servants of responsibility for misusing the budget."

Both Kiev and Brussels sought to downplay the postponement of Yanukovych's visit, saying negotiations on the trade agreement were still continuing.

"We are continuing to work with Ukraine," said EU Commission spokeswoman Karolina Kottova.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Voloshin said the nation regrets the visit's postponement "because our goal is to continue cooperation with the EU."

The development could boost Russia's influence over Ukraine as it tries to get Kiev join a Moscow-led economic group that would come at the expense of a free trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine. Moscow has offered to lower prices for natural gas to lure Ukraine into joining the group.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met with Yanukovych Tuesday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk to discuss economic cooperation, while Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was set to meet separately with his Ukrainian counterpart at a forum of ex-Soviet nations in St. Petersburg.

Yanukovych and Medvedev both said that talks on Ukraine joining the Moscow-led customs union are continuing, but didn't gave further details. Yanukovych also said he hopes that negotiations on Russian natural gas imports would be concluded in the near future.

Timothy Ash, London-based head of emerging market research at Royal Bank of Scotland said that the EU snubbing of Yanukovych could give an "interesting dynamic" to Russia-Ukraine talks. "Will the apparent fissure in the relationship with the EU encourage Russia to offer concessions over energy to bring Ukraine back within the Russian sphere of influence?" Ash asked.



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Yanukovych: Signing of association agreement with EU may be delayed
Yesterday at 10:25 | Interfax-Ukraine Kyiv is ready to postpone the signing of the association agreement with the EU, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said in an interview with Western reporters.

"If Europe isn't ready for that because of any reason, or Ukraine is not ready, it means the decision may be conducted later," the Bloomberg news agency quoted Yanukovych as saying.

At the same time, the president said: "The Association Agreement which reflects prospects for Ukraine to join the EU is very important to us."



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Chornovil: Yanukovych not to fulfill his promises to West on Tymoshenko's release
2 days ago at 10:42 | Interfax-Ukraine Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych will not fulfill his promises to the West regarding the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, MP Chornovil told Radio Liberty on Sunday.

"At a time when the West, wryly, is expressing its readiness to continue the dialog with him, he's openly taking an strange step. Another criminal case has been opened, which shows that none of the promises made by Yanukovych will be fulfilled," he said.

Chornovil noted that it was impossible to decriminalize an article about large-scale embezzlement and that "in Soviet times such crimes were generally punished."

"Closing a criminal case like this would be very problematic, as somebody's head would have to roll," he said.

"And such a serious case as finally releasing Tymoshenko and clearing her way to the next elections is absolutely unrealistic. It's also impossible in our country to lose in court and defiantly make the court cancel these charges," he said.

Chornovil said that "Yanukovych either himself agreed to give up the western path and is ready to retreat, or, on the other hand, there is some incredible influence on the situation by people who are blocking the western, and now, apparently, the eastern path, and are leading [Ukraine] towards [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko."

He noted that businessmen Rinat Akhmetov and Ihor Kolomoisky want to operate under European conditions, "rather than under conditions a la Belarus."




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US official: Tymoshenko's conviction to complicate relation between Kyiv, Washington
Oct 13 at 11:44 | Interfax-Ukraine Moscow, Oct. 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Michael Posner, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, has said that the Unites States is concerned over the verdict of the court on Ukrainian ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko's case.

"This case will complicate our relations," Posner told the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio on Wednesday.

"If the new government punishes the former leader for the contracts and agreements that the new government does not like, it cannot but arouse our deep concern," he added.

The diplomat said that the U.S. viewed Tymoshenko's trial as a case of selective use of justice based on political judgments.

Even when the politicians lose the election, their decisions must be respected, Posner said adding that the politicians should not be punished for their actions and for their opinions.


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The New Yorker: Taking out Tymoshenko
Today at 20:18 When the former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was found guilty of abusing her power in negotiating a gas deal with Russia in 2009 and sentenced to seven years in jail in a Kyiv courtroom on Tuesday, things got kind of crazy. One of her supporters tried to shout down the judge. Outside, people threw plastic chairs. The feminists took their shirts off. Europeans expressed their dismay at what they saw as a politically motivated trial and threatened to scuttle Ukraine’s pending free-trade agreement with Europe.

 Russian observers began to compare Tymoshenko to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oil tycoon and opposition cause célèbre, and Tymoshenko herself compared her ordeal to the 1937 purges.
What’s going on? Rather simple, really. Tymoshenko lost the presidential election in 2010 to Victor Yanukovich, the current president and, according to most observers, the one who is tossing Tymoshenko into jail. That makes the most sense, given that, after the elections, Tymoshenko remained powerful and popular, which is not hard to do given the President’s doltish, apparatchik’s demeanor. Being in the opposition and fighting her way back to power is, according to her former advisers, her most natural, strongest state. When she was prime minister, on and off after the Orange Revolution of 2004-2005, she became a controversial, polarizing figure. In the opposition, she becomes a magnetic force, a figure for whom people will throw chairs and camp out in the center of Kiev, someone they’ll stand up and strip for. It’s too dangerous to have someone like this roving around, so she was taken out.

In Byzantium, which is where ancient Kiev and, later, Moscow got their religion and founding mythologies, this was known as political mutilation. Since an emperor was supposed to be the earthly manifestation of God, and God is perfection, so, too, an emperor must be perfect. Thus, when an emperor was overthrown—as became increasingly common in Byzantium—he was then physically mangled: castrated, blinded, or had his nose sliced off. This prevented him from being taken seriously as a man, leading troops into battle, or being the incarnation of the divine, respectively. It was in other words, insurance against having to face the same rival again.

In contemporary Kiev, we see a similar dynamic. Yanukovich and Tymoshenko first met as rivals in 2004, when Yanukovich won a fraudulent election against Tymoshenko’s mentor, Victor Yuschenko. Yuschenko and Tymoshenko brought Kiev out into the streets, into the Maidan—or Independence—Square, where tens of thousands camped out and rallied for weeks until the election was overturned and Yuschenko was swept into power, with Tymoshenko as his prime minister. On the Maidan, Tymoshenko was transformed from a brunette, Russian-speaking gas-industry power player into her current guise of blond, braided, Ukranian-speaking Joan of Arc. She became a hero with her own base of support, which allowed her to eventually cannibalize Yuschenko. Then, in 2010, with Yuschenko out of the way, she took on Yanukovich in the presidential elections, and came very close to beating him. When she didn’t, she went back into the opposition, where she became an even stronger, better politician than she was when she was trying to govern. She again became the heroine at the gates of the stodgy, ineffective, and corrupt establishment. The fact that she has been accused of being one of the most corrupt players in that establishment—she’s been arrested twice before—quickly fell into the recesses of the public consciousness.

A third battle was unthinkable, and Tymoshenko simply had to be neutralized. And since one couldn’t feasibly blind her or cut off her nose (not that that would produce any real effect), she was charged with overstepping her duties as prime minister when she negotiated a gas deal with Russia, in 2009, that ended the two countries’ crippling gas wars. It is a strange charge that has puzzled international legal experts—and her negotiating partner, Vladimir Putin. “To be honest, I can’t quite understand why she got those seven years,” he said to reporters while on a trip to Beijing.

It’s funny to hear Putin say that, because he has been a master at neutralizing powerful enemies, including Boris Berezovsky, the man who made him king, or Khodorkovsky, who dared to impede his consolidation of power and, allegedly, wealth. But Khodorkovsky never went away. Prison was his makeover, from detested robber baron to beloved martyr. And Tymoshenko, it seems, is following the same route because in taking her down, Yanukovich played right to her strengths. “She likes to live in crisis,” Taras Berezovets, Tymoshenko’s campaign adviser, told me when we met in Kiev during the 2010 campaign. “It gives her more energy, and she makes mistakes in calm situations. In crisis, she is like a string. She makes fewer mistakes.” Another strength? “She is a P.R. maven in her soul,” according to Berezovets. Instead of mutilating her and removing her from the game—the conviction was supposed to keep her out of the next round of parliamentary elections—the trial has been her comeback tour, elevating her to international prominence once again, as Ukraine’s martyr. She has become not an embodiment of the divine, but of Ukraine’s victimization at the hands of the Russians: there’s a thread of commentary that sees in Yanukovich’s actions the “Putinization”—that is, Russianization, colonization—of Ukraine.

Moreover, Yanukovich doesn’t seem to have Putin’s solid-steel spine. He has already started backtracking, saying, “This is not a final decision…. Ahead lies the appeals court, and it will without a doubt make a decision within the bounds of the law, but the decision will have great significance.” When that decision comes, given the international pressure, it will no doubt leave Tymoshenko not just unharmed but strengthened, and within striking distance at Yanukovich—for a third time.






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Round Two of the East Slav Feud
In Round One, close to a million euphoric young Ukrainians occupied Kyiv's central square for two long months to protest mass fraud in the 2004 presidential election. Unbelievably, they forced a re-run. Their favored Orange Revolution candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, defeated the Russian-backed candidate from eastern Ukraine who had originally claimed victory. Yushchenko became president and appointed Julia Tymoshenko, his co-hero in the peaceful revolution, as prime minister. That was her rise to power. Together—with the enthusiastic support of western Ukrainian nationalists—the pair turned Ukraine's 1991 de jure independence from Russia into de facto independence.

For the first time since Soviet dissolution in 1991 Russian elites grudgingly admitted that Ukraine, after three centuries as the crown jewel of the Russian empire, really was parting from its elder Russian brothers. Senior Moscow politicians never forgave Tymoshenko and Yushchenko their victory in that first round of the post-Soviet feud between the fraternal East Slav Russians and Ukrainians.

Revenge came this month, with a few odd twists, as a Kyiv court sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in jail. Ironically, Tymoshenko’s conviction has sparked Round Two of the East Slav fight. Tymoshenko was sentenced for having acted against Ukraine's national interest when she was prime minister by approving a deal to pay too much for the Russian gas that Ukraine depends on. Now, Viktor Yanukovych—the candidate from the Russophile east Ukrainian clan who lost the presidency back in 2004—occupies the president's seat. In the next presidential election in 2010 he edged out Tymoshenko, his only serious political rival these day. He benefited from the infighting of the Orange Revolution principals and their failure to reform institutions—as the West Slav Poles and Czechs did—away from clientelist political control toward impersonal rule of law. In office he has benefited as well from prosecutors who pride themselves as being on his team.

The oddity in this exercise is that Yanukovych has managed to alienate not only the West, which views the court pageant as a political trial aimed at barring Tymoshenko from running in forthcoming elections. He has also offended his one-time Russian patrons, since the grounds for the Tymoshenko indictment are seen in Moscow as anti-Russian. Once and future Russian President Vladimir Putin swiftly asserted that the gas deal under Tymoshenko "was signed in full compliance with Russian and Ukrainian legislation." And he is now increasing pressure on Ukraine on two counts.

First, he sent current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Ukraine this week to offer Kyiv (yet again) a lower price for Russian gas if only Kyiv will sell to Russia's Gazprom a controlling share in Ukraine's transit pipelines to western Europe. Second, he is leaning harder on Ukraine to join the fledgling customs union of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus in a new Soviet Union-lite that Putin calls a "Eurasian Union." In this union, energy-rich Russia, with its population of 143 million, would clearly dominate energy-poor Ukraine, with its 46 million.

Putin is by no means flexing his muscle out of any solidarity with Tymoshenko. She rose to the top in the murky south Ukrainian political-business clan, Donetsk, that monopolized Ukraine's import of Russian gas in the 1990s and is a veteran of the bruising mix of collusion and coercion between old intertwined Soviet Russian and Ukrainian clans. For some years Russia itself had a warrant out for her arrest. Putin's muscle must therefore be seen instead as a reminder to Ukraine not to insult Russia.

For its part, the European Union has been working ever since the election of President Yanukovych to offer him the kind of financial aid and better access to EU markets that—while not opposing the primary Russian influence in Ukraine—could still give Kyiv some leverage vis-à-vis its powerful northern neighbor. EU diplomats assumed that Yanukovych would follow the pragmatic dynamic they anticipated in the 1990s if Ukraine could just manage to maintain its new independence for a decade or two. He would settle for being a big frog in the small Ukrainian pool, they thought, rather than a small frog in the Russian pool.

Indeed, in his second campaign for the presidency Yanukovych assured Western contacts that he was a pragmatist and no front man for Russia. He had learned from the Orange Revolution, he said. He would unite Ukraine's bickering regional clans. He wanted to tie Ukraine's future to the secure and prosperous European Union. He was even studying English.

Once in office, Yanukovych did pursue, vigorously, an association agreement with the European Union. But he also reawakened doubts about Kyiv's real independence by his prolongation of home basing for the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Ukrainian Crimea for 25 years beyond the originally agreed termination of 2017. And the blatant political trial of Tymoshenko—under old Soviet legislation still on the books—was too much of a transgression of the EU's values of democracy and rule of law to ignore. In the fortnight since the verdict Yanukovych has not only refused to find some diplomatic way to free his political rival from prison. Ukrainian prosecutors have also begun work on a new indictment charging Tymoshenko with 1990s' crimes connected with her one-time mentor and Ukrainian ex-prime minister, Pavlo Lazarenko. Lazarenko is now serving his own nine-year jail term in a California prison after being convicted in the U.S. for embezzlement, money laundering, and extortion.

In its eyes the European Union now has no choice. It has publicly disinvited Yanukovych from his long-planned trip to Brussels this week to work out the last details of the association agreement that was to have been signed by the end of 2011.

Dominique Arel, Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, summarized the present state of play in his latest Ukraine news list: "The evidence should be fairly clear by now that the Donetsk clan [in eastern Ukraine]—however close to Russian culture, and definitely close to Russian political culture—does not want to be subordinated to Russia… Political culture in Central-Western Ukraine is rowdy, exasperating in its incomprehension of the law, but open. Political culture in Eastern Ukraine is based on intimidation…Yanukovych learned nothing from the Orange Revolution and everything from Putin: to stay in power, you have to bully your opponents."

One German diplomat expressed hopes that Yanukovych might still find some face-saving way to free Tymoshenko. "The ball is now in his court," he commented.

Round Two of the East Slav contest could produce a hot winter in Kyiv and Moscow this year—and a slow one in the Brussels office for European Neighborhood Policy.