Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's supporters suspect Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of conspiring with Russia.
Photo: Konstantin Ilyanok
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Yushchenko Accuses Tymoshenko of Betraying Ukrainian National Interests
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko cut short her vacation in Sardinia yesterday to return to Kiev, at the demand of President Viktor Yushchenko. The latest hot scandal in their relations concerns relations with Russia. Using growing public concern in Ukraine about a Russian invasion, Yushchenko is trying to assume the role of guarantor of national security, accusing Tymoshenko, who did not support Georgia, of conspiracy with Moscow.
Tymoshenko attended a meeting yesterday of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council devoted to efforts by the government to aid six regions of Ukraine hit by flooding. The government’s efforts were deemed unsatisfactory and Yushchenko gave Tymoshenko’s cabinet 24 hours to remedy the situation. The serious charges of political corruption and betrayal of national interests in favor of Russia made against Tymoshenko at the president’s secretariat were not discussed but, according to deputy secretary of the Security Council Stepan Gavrish, they will be carefully investigated by that body.
Events in South Ossetia have led to high tensions in Ukrainian politics and new clashes between Yushchenko and his supporters and Tymoshenko and hers. On Monday, deputy head of the presidential secretariat Andrey Kislinsky accuses Tymoshenko of conspiring with Moscow and trading her withholding of support for Georgia for Russian support for her in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential elections. “Last week, we stated that there was information about the systemic work of Yulia Tymoshenko in the interests of the Russian side. Unfortunately, that information has been confirmed,” Kislinsky said. He promised to turn that information over to law enforcement agencies.
Several days earlier, Kislinsky announced that a center to support Tymoshenko as a presidential candidate had been founded in Moscow, headed by Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the administration of former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma. Kislinsky said $1 billion had been allocated to that project. In April, a Kommersant source in the Ukrainian Gas Co. said that Tymoshenko and then-president Vladimir Putin had reached an agreement at Novo-Ogarevo at the beginning of the year that Russia would support her presidential bid in 2010 and, in exchange, Ukraine would receive a beneficial pay for Russian natural gas for three to five years and would leave the Black Sea Fleet in peace until 2017. A month ago, Gazprom reached an agreement with Turkmenistan to buy its gas at market prices, but the parties agreed to take heed of Ukraine’s wishes. Nonetheless, cooperation between Moscow and Kiev on natural gas depends on other political agreements on other issues.
Ukrainian political doyen and first president Leonid Kravchuk said that the current tiff marks the beginning of the next presidential battle. He said Tymoshenko should respond loudly and aggressively.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 20, 2008
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