On August 5, Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister and heroine of Ukraine’s 2004 pro-western Orange Revolution, was arrested during her trial. Tymoshenko was in court defending herself against charges of overstepping her authority and allegedly making an illegal gas price deal with Russia in 2009. The presiding judge, Rodion Kireyev, accused her of systematically disrupting the trial’s proceedings and had her incarcerated for contempt of court for an unspecified period of time. Tymoshenko has strongly protested the charges brought against her. She holds that the trial is a politically …
The defeated Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has dropped her court case challenging the results from the February 7th presidential election. She had attempted to annul Viktor Yanukovych’s election, citing fraud in a case appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine. Nevertheless, her legal challenge was futile. Ms. Tymoshenko dropped her case on Saturday, February 20, saying that as an ordinary citizen, she can’t find justice in courts of Ukraine. With Yanukovych’s inauguration set for February 25, Ms. Tymoshenko is now fighting to retain her control of the parliament. …
Much is at stake for Ukraine and the U.S. in Ukraine’s presidential elections, which are scheduled for January 17, 2010. Ukraine was a part of the Russian empire and the Soviet Union for almost 350 years and the Red Army re-conquered it after an attempted independence in 1918-1919. Today, Ukraine is more democratic than its northern neighbor, but the population there is hit harder by the economic crisis. The showdown in the Ukrainian presidential election will define the country’s reorientation towards Moscow; affect the future of Ukraine’s gas pipeline system, …
