Friday

29th Mar 2024

Opinion

Tymoshenko trial: Gas, lies and stereotypes

  • Squashed oranges: Tymoshenko co-led the Orange Revolution in 2004 and is hoping to stage a comeback (Photo: mattlemmon)

The detention of former prime minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko on 5 August remains big news both at home and abroad, with a final verdict expected in the coming days. Updates from the Pechersky court room, where the case is being judged, are as regular as weather forecasts.

The international community, without any real scrutiny of the prosecutor's argument, has loudly complained that the trial is politically motivated. For their part, Ukrainians find it hard to understand the details of the case, while most foreign diplomats and media do not even try.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Some in the West fear that Ukraine will revert to post-Soviet authoritarianism. Others fear it will become too successful and join the European Union - the allegedly 'political' case against Tymoshenko presents an opportunity to torpedo its European aspirations.

The ruling regime has done a lousy job of communicating his side of the story both inside the country and abroad. Meanwhile, Tymoshenko's foreign PR machine runs like clockwork in informing: accurate, non-stop.

The trial could either end her political career or launch a major comeback.

She was first arrested in 1995 on currency smuggling charges while co-head of the Ukrainian Gas Korporation, which later transformed itself into the powerful business lobby, the Common Energy System of Ukraine. She was arrested again in 2001, while deputy-PM, on charges of bribing ex-PM Pavel Lazarenko, who is currently in jail in the US on a money laundering conviction. She spent 42 days in pre-trial detention.

Bookies back then would have given very long odds on Tymoshenko going back to cell 242, the same one as in 2001. Never say never. It has happened and it has happened again over Russian gas.

Not even the best investigative journalists in Ukraine know what really happened in Tymoshenko's 2009 gas deal with Russia.

On 19 January she, as prime minister, signed a "directive" authorising a new contract between Ukraine's Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom. On the basis of this directive, she later obliged Naftogaz chief Oleg Dubyna to sign the contract. The deal set a final price of $450 per thousand cubic metres for Ukraine, obliged Ukraine to take a set volume of gas each month or pay for the set volume even if it did not need the full amount. But it did not oblige Gazprom to transit a set volume through Ukraine's pipelines to the EU.

The terms are potentially disastrous for both Naftogaz and the Ukrainian economy.

The court hearings have shown that Tymoshenko did not have the right to sign the "directive" and to force Dubyna to sign the contract.

For any such directive to be legally valid, it has to be approved by all the members of the government, not just the PM. What Tymoshenko did in plain words is falsify a very important document.

In one of the recent court hearings she asked: "I presented my instruction, which was entitled a 'directive'. If someone thinks such directives should be called by other words, does this mean I should be sent to prison for seven or 10 years?" It is a bit like asking: "If I paid with a fake banknote that I made myself, should this be called counterfeiting?" Yes, it should.

The court also learned that Tymoshenko threatened Dubyna with dismissal if he did not go along with the deal. "I want to let it be known once again, the directives [instructions] I signed on 19 January 2009 were obligatory for all the officials of Naftogaz. Otherwise they would have been fired," Tymoshenko said. According to our law, the prime minister does not have the power to dismiss the head of Naftogaz.

Her defence is a shambles and her only hope of getting off is foreign pressure on Kiev.

The West was shocked when the judge last month ordered her detention for contempt of court ( I wonder if there is any judge in the world that would have tolerated her offensive behaviour). Outside powers fired off well-prepared demarches - first Moscow, then Washington, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, London, Madrid and Warsaw.

I understand Old Europe's reaction - they always saw Ukraine as a mess. New Europe is equally cynical about Kiev despite its sympathy for the Orange Revolution crew. But Moscow? Excuse me Moscow, but what about your mangling of oil-tycoon-turned-liberal-reformist Mikhail Khodorkovsky? What about Sergei Magnitsky, where the US imposed travel sanctions on 60 Russian officials said to have murdered him in jail? Just two examples of Russian nihilism which makes a mockery of its intervention in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has clearly shown how much they like the 2009 gas deal. And here's the nub of it - if Tymoshenko is found guilty, Ukraine has a basis for revising the contract and Europe has a potential new gas war on its hands.

I believe that too many people in Russia and in certain EU countries have an interest in keeping Ukraine weak and unstable, in maintaining the status quo. Otherwise the whole affair just does not add up. Why don't they complain about the scores of other prosecutions of ex-politicians in Ukraine? Why is Tymoshenko so special?

Former leaders in the West are not immune from the law. Dominique Strauss-Kahn? French ex-president Jacques Chirac? In March 2011 Chirac also went on trial on charges of corruption. Even his advanced age - 78 - was not an obstacle. The now foreign minister of France and another ex-French-PM, Alain Juppe, in 2004 got an 18 month suspended sentence for abuse of public funds.

In the West this is a good thing: 'No one is above the law.' So why is Ukraine being denied this opportunity to break its old ways of total unaccountability for abuse of power?

Ilona Iarmoliuk is a freelance journalist in Ukraine

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

Tymoshenko to EU: I fear for my safety in prison

Embattled former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has told EUobserver that Ukraine's current administration is so rotten she is afraid of being killed while she is in prison.

EU turns the screw on Tymoshenko trial

Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski has warned Ukraine EU parliaments are likely to block ratification of a landmark pact if harm comes to former leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Column

EU's Gaza policy: boon for dictators, bad for democrats

While they woo dictators and autocrats, EU policymakers are becoming ever more estranged from the world's democrats. The real tragedy is the erosion of one of Europe's key assets: its huge reserves of soft power, writes Shada Islam.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us