First deputy head of the Batkivshchyna Party Oleksandr Turchynov has said that the latest actions of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) are a continuation of the political repression against the opposition and that the latest charges against Yulia Tymoshenko regarding debts owed by United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) to Russia are groundless and absurd, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.
“The new accusations against Yulia Tymoshenko are even more absurd than the failed cases that were announced, forged and investigated over the last year,” Oleksandr Turchynov said today at a briefing in Kyiv.
He said that that SBU investigators didn’t present Yulia Tymoshenko with any charges and acted illegally. “No charges were presented. They tried to do this in an unlawful way – last night around 8 pm. No lawyers were admitted to this case, nobody is familiar with the materials, and there have also been no preliminary interrogations,” he said.
Oleksandr Turchynov believes the new criminal case against Yulia Tymoshenko was opened on orders from the president. “To say that this wasn’t coordinated with the president is nothing but a joke. The SBU is fully subordinate to the president, fulfills all his orders to fight the opposition,” he said.
Oleksandr Turchynov recalled that similar cases were opened against Yulia Tymoshenko while Leonid Kuchma was president and that Ukrainian courts concluded that they had been falsified. He also pointed out that Yulia Tymoshenko had no connection to UESU in 1997.
He also said that UESU’s debt wasn’t secured by state guarantees. “This is nonsense, and I’m sure that if the debt was really secured by state guarantees then Russia wouldn’t have waited 15 years. You see how Russia works: they don’t lose anything that is theirs. Just look at how strongly they’re defending their positions in the energy sector,” he added.
“A case is again being falsified and this destroys any hope that leading world countries had that Ukraine’s leadership would reach some conclusions from their positions and statements. There is only one goal behind new investigations – to not let Yulia Tymoshenko out of jail. Viktor Yanukovych and his government`s fear of Yulia Tymoshenko is so great that it paralyzes their minds: they can’t properly assess a situation and behave in a way that no longer shocks just citizens of Ukraine, but probably the whole world. There is only one form of existence for the regime – political repression and attempts to destroy opponents, and their main opponent is Yulia Tymoshenko,” he added.
