Posted on 10/11/2011 4:54:34 AM PDT by AnAmericanAbroad
A Ukraine court has found former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko guilty of abuse of authority for signing gas contracts with Russia and sentenced her Tuesday to seven years in prison.
Authorities deployed hundreds of police officers around the court to keep order, state media reported. Dozens of angry Tymoshenko supporters took to the streets of Kiev in August when she was taken into custody.
"Dear friends, I just want to say that I disagree with this verdict and I am saying that the year 1937 is back again," Tymoshenko said in the courtroom on Tuesday, making a reference to Josef Stalin's rule when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
And it looks like she ended it.
She’s the one who co-operated with KGB-man, to the detriment of her own country.
Really, its hard to tell. It looks like this may be a reaction against the Putin iron grip.
And it looks like she ended it.
She’s the one who co-operated with KGB-man, to the detriment of her own country.
Really, its hard to tell. It looks like this may be a reaction against the Putin iron grip.
ping for later
While the Russian Orthodox Church has a large following in Ukraine, it is also seen by many Ukrainians as an instrument of Kremlin interests. According to documents and sources, both Boyko and Firtash are close associates.
Firtash, who kick-started his business career while living in Chernivtsi region in the 1990s, has in prior years been a partner of Russian energy giant Gazprom in the multi-billion-dollar business of supplying Ukraine with natural gas. Firtash and Gazprom co-own Swiss-registered RosUkrEnergo, which controlled the supply of gas to Ukraine from 2004 until Yulia Tymoshenko -- as prime minister in 2009 -- cut out the middlemen trader as part of an agreement with her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Boyko served as Ukraine’s Energy Minister when RosUkrEnergo was first brought in to a dominant role in energy relations between Ukraine and Russia. According to sources and documents, the authenticity of which Boyko has neither confirmed nor denied despite inquiries from journalists, he held power-of-attorney over Firtash’s assets and represented him in a divorce.
As prime minister from 2007 through 2010 and now as Ukraine's opposition leaders, Tymoshenko has repeatedly questioned the transparency of RosUkrEnergo's role. She claims that Boyko and other top Ukrainian officials in the inner circle of Ukraine’s current political leadership, including President Viktor Yanukovych himself, are shadow benefactors of RosUkrEnergo. Such allegations are denied by Boyko and other top officials, including Yanukovych.
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