Deputy PM accuses leaders of pro-presidential clan of orchestrating criminal case against her
Reeling from reports of imminent arrest, Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko went on the offensive this week, accusing leaders of a pro-presidential clan of orchestrating a criminal case against her.
Tymoshenko says she is a victim of persecution and political revenge, which she claims led to the arrest of her husband, Oleksandr, last summer.
“My husband and I are the victims of a witch hunt orchestrated by criminal clans of oligarchs who de facto rule Ukraine,” she said, calling the latest scandal an attempt to discredit her work and the reputation of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko’s government.
Her claim was supported Jan. 9 by former presidential guard Mykola Melnychenko, who said in a live interview on Radio Free Europe’s Ukrainian Service (See story, page 3) that he has evidence of plans to oust the embattled deputy prime minister.
“The case against Tymoshenko was fabricated in order to ‘destroy’ Yushchenko,” Melnychenko said in the interview. “I have proof of this on tape, how the whole affair was worked out.”
Deputy Prosecutor General Mykola Obikhod charged on Jan. 5 that Tymoshenko transferred abroad at least $1.8 billion and is suspected of smuggling, forgery and tax evasion.
The decision to detain or arrest Tymoshenko would be made by agents in charge the investigation, Obikhod said. The case against Tymoshenko is being combined with the criminal proceedings involving former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who remains in a U.S. jail awaiting trial on money-laundering charges.
The new allegations concern crimes allegedly committed in 1996-97, when Tymoshenko headed a key energy supplier, Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU).
Prosecutors said last week they have finally gathered enough evidence to actually prove that UESU exported Russian natural gas and presented gas imported from Russia as having been bought through a British company.
Elected to parliament in 1997, Tymoshenko was tagged last year by Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko to clean up Ukraine’s inefficient and allegedly corrupt energy sector. Since then, she has spearheaded efforts to improve cash payments for electricity.
Tymoshenko has denied past improprieties and claims recent charges are politically contrived.
“The decision to file [criminal charges] last week corresponds with today’s so-called political crisis, which is being managed [for Kuchma] by a group led by [Social Democratic Party (united) faction (SPDU) leader and Rada deputy speaker Viktor] Medvedchuk,” Tymoshenko said.
She claims a group, headed by presidential supporters Viktor Medvedchuk and powerful businessman Hryhory Surkis, launched the latest offensive because they were afraid of losing power.
Media owned or controlled by that group, including Inter [UT-2] – the nation’s most-watched television channel, have reported Tymoshenko’s alleged ties to Pavlo Lazarenko, whom they say profited from hundreds of millions of dollars UESU was paid for gas supplies.
Medvedchuk accompanied Kuchma on a trip to Kosovo and Yugoslavia Jan. 8-9, and was unavailable for comment, but his faction’s co-leader, Oleksandr Zinchenko, responded to Tymoshenko’s claims that he instigated the charges against her.
“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard in a long time,” Zinchenko was quoted by UNIAN as saying on Jan. 9.
Meanwhile, Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz criticized prosecutors. The timing was designed to achieve two key political objectives, Moroz said: to divert media attention away from Kuchma’s alleged role in the disappearance of an opposition journalist, and to keep the Yushchenko government on a short leash.
While Western analysts have praised many of Tymoshenko’s initiatives, parliament deputies have been either ambivalent or vigorously opposed to them.
Foremost among Tymoshenko’s critics have been SDPU faction leaders, including Medvedchuk, Zinchenko and Hryhory Surkis.
Surkis, who is best known in as honorary president of Dynamo Kyiv soccer club, has extensive business interests and controls privatized stakes in several of Ukraine’s 27 oblenergos.
Since entering government, Tymoshenko has enjoyed unwavering support from Yushchenko.
“I am satisfied with her work in the energy sector. What she has done is important and successful,” Ukrainia Moloda newspaper quoted him as saying before leaving on vacation earlier this month.
In a Jan. 9 press conference, Tymoshenko called on Kuchma to clarify his position on the charges brought against her.
“Whether he supports the case against me or not … he must have some kind of position on this issue,” she said.
