Ukraine

Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe, with 46 million people, and serves as a vital transportation point for natural gas from Russia. The country has been a focal point of the struggle for influence in post-Soviet space. It has long been divided, with Ukrainian speakers in western regions wanting ties to Europe and Russian speakers in the east and south more sympathetic to Moscow.
In February 2010, Viktor F. Yanukovich narrowly defeated Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko in a presidential runoff election. Ms. Tymoshenko had been one of the heroes of the so-called Orange Revolution. Mr. Yanukovich was the loser in the pro-Western revolution, which erupted when protesters declared that his victory in the 2004 presidential election was tainted by fraud. A new election was organized and Mr. Yanukovich was defeated after his rivals portrayed him as a Kremlin lackey who would govern as an old-style Soviet boss.
Mr. Yanukovich made a comeback in the 2010 presidential campaign, though, pledging that he was a changed man. He said that he would safeguard political and media freedoms and guarantee that Ukraine would have warm relations with both the West and neighboring Russia.
But a year and a half after taking office with a vow to pursue close ties to Russia, Mr. Yanukovich was overseeing a broad crackdown on the pro-Western opposition that mirrored the kind of pressure tactics used by his allies in the Kremlin. Prosecutors appointed by Mr. Yanukovich carried out many investigations of opposition leaders, including the former prime minister, Ms. Tymoshenko, who called the inquiries a political witch hunt.

On June 24, 2011, Ms. Tymoshenko was charged with abuse of power and went on trial in Kiev. She was accused of working against the country’s interests by signing a deal to buy Russian natural gas while in office in 2009 at prices that prosecutors say were inflated, a charge her supporters dismiss as politically motivated.
On Aug. 5, she was arrested in the courtroom in Kiev for contempt, and on Oct. 11, Ms. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison, the maximum requested by prosecutors.

Read More...

In the weeks leading up to the verdict, American and Western European diplomats warned that Ms. Tymoshenko’s imprisonment would make Mr. Yanukovich persona non grata in Western capitals and jeopardize Ukraine’s free trade and association agreement with the European Union, which was nearing completion.
European leaders hoped that in the week after the trial, the sentence might be hurriedly reversed — in part because Mr. Yanukovich was due on Oct. 20 for an official visit to Brussels, but that trip was postponed.
Mr. Yanukovich said that he would not bend to international pressure to free Ms. Tymoshenko.
Then, in mid-November, in a move certain to further strain relations between Ukraine and the West, the Ukrainian government added new charges against her. Ms. Tymoshenko was formally charged with tax evasion and embezzlement in a reopened case dating back more than 15 years.
The announcement by the Ukrainian State Tax Service was the latest signal that the government of her rival, Mr. Yanukovich, was reluctant to release her despite pressure from European leaders and the risk that her continued imprisonment seemed to pose for Ukraine’s diplomatic and economic ties.
On Dec. 30, the Ukrainian authorities abruptly transferred Ms. Tymoshenko to a prison camp about 300 miles east of Kiev, a move that her supporters suspected was intended to cut off her access to the press and the public.
The week before, an appeals court in Kiev upheld the ruling against Ms. Tymoshenko centering on the 2009 gas deal she negotiated with Russia. International legal experts said she seemed to have been performing a routine administrative function for which she might conceivably have been disciplined, if the government was displeased with her performance, but not charged with a crime.
Government Crackdown

Ms. Tymoshenko had been repeatedly interrogated by prosecutors who said they were examining official corruption during her tenure as prime minister. But so far they are focusing on an accusation that has not aroused much public outrage: they say she violated the law in 2009 by shifting hundreds of millions of dollars from environmental funds to pay pensions. (She is not accused of personally stealing any of the money.)
The clash between the politicians reflects Ukraine’s geographic divide. Mr. Yanukovich is from the Russian-speaking eastern part of the country, which has long turned toward Moscow for support. Ms. Tymoshenko portrays herself as a champion of western Ukraine, where the Ukrainian language dominates and people want more bonds with Europe.
Many of Ms. Tymoshenko’s colleagues have also faced intense scrutiny.
In late December 2010 a squad of masked special services agents arrested her former interior minister, Yuriy V. Lutsenko, while he was walking his dog, and he has been jailed since.
Prosecutors accused him of, among other things, hiring an official driver whose age exceeded the limit under government rules. In a statement from a detention center Mr. Lutsenko labeled the charges bizarre and described himself as a political prisoner.
Another Tymoshenko associate, a former economic minister, Bohdan M. Danylyshyn, fled to the Czech Republic and was granted asylum there in January 2011 — an indication that the Czech authorities doubted that the case against him had merit.
The investigations into opposition figures seemed to grow in November 2010 after Mr. Yanukovich named a new prosecutor general, Viktor P. Pshonka. “Of course, I am a member of the president’s team,” Mr. Pshonka said at the time.
Mr. Yanukovich and his senior ministers have denied that the government was persecuting the opposition. They said that since assuming power they had undertaken an evenhanded review of the previous government’s policies and spending and were trying to ensure that corrupt officials were punished.