On 13 November, deputies in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, failed to find common ground for the release of jailed former prime minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a delay that may derail the signing of landmark agreements on trade with the European Union in Vilnius this month.
Tymoshenko, an opponent of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich, was convicted over a gas contract with Russia that was deemed financially unfavourable for Ukraine. She has also been accused of organising the murder of a local politician in 1996. She insists that the charges against her are politically motivated. Tymoshenko’s imprisonment has become a major roadblock to Ukraine’s signing of an association agreement with the EU.
Though Yanukovych has refused to pardon her, he has said he is ready to break the impasse by signing a draft law to allow her to go to Germany to be treated for chronic back pain.
But at a special session on 13 November, pro-Yanukovich deputies and Tymoshenko’s supporters in parliament failed to agree on any such draft and blamed each other for seeking to undermine the signing of the accords in Vilnius on 28 November.
EU foreign ministers are due to hold a pre-summit meeting on 18 November to assess whether Kiev has met key democratic criteria. One of these is an end to “selective justice” which the EU says was applied against Tymoshenko.
Germany warned that with the Vilnius summit only two weeks away, time was running out for Kiev to settle the case of Tymoshenko. Summit host Lithuania said there would be no success unless Ukraine produced results.
The proceedings will be watched closely by Russia which is opposed to Ukraine signing the agreement and has threatened counter-measures.
Moscow wants Kiev to enter an alternative Customs Union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Yanukovich has stuck to his policy of Euro-integration despite intense diplomatic pressure from Moscow - on which Ukraine relies for gas - and the threats of retaliatory trade action by Russia. But Ukrainian observers say that if Yanukovych softens his stance against Tymoshenko it might be perceived as a sign of weakness from his pro-Russian supporters.
Moreover, local media reported that Ukraine’s union of industrialists called for the signing to be delayed by a year.
On 13 November, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, an old-school politician with strong ties to Moscow, told a cabinet meeting that there is a need to repair relations with Russia, downplaying prospects of an association with the EU.
A criminal action brought against Tymoshenko’s chief lawyer has further damaged ties with the West. The lawyer is being questioned for allegedly assaulting his ex-wife, the press service for Tymoshenko’s Fatherland opposition party said 12 November. A district court in Kiev ruled to release lawyer Sergei Vlasenko from pre-trial custody on about $2,700 bail. He is allowed to leave Kiev only to visit his client in Kharkiv, a city about 400 kilometres east of the capital.
Vlasenko said earlier that he had been summoned for questioning at the Prosecutor General’s Office in Kiev last week for his suspected assault on ex-wife Natalia Okunskaya.
The Fatherland party said Tymoshenko believes her close contacts are being unfairly persecuted for their involvement with her.
A Ukrainian court seized a building owned by Tymoshenko’s daughter Yevgenia on 29 October.