A wish and a prayer for the Ukrainian democrats, please

Karimov congratulates Yushchenko on his election victory

TASHKENT. Jan 8 (Interfax) - Uzbek President Islam Karimov has congratulated Viktor Yushchenko on his victory in the Ukrainian presidential elections, Karimov's office told Interfax on Saturday.

"It is a great pleasure to congratulate you on your election to the high post of Ukrainian president," says Karimov's message to Yushchenko.

Karimov conveyed "the feelings of profound respect to the people of Ukraine, who demonstrated their unbending character and political willingness to advance along the chosen path of independence, democracy and renewal in the dramatic elections."

"I am convinced that mutually advantageous cooperation between Uzbekistan and Ukraine, based on traditional partnership, will be further developed in the interests and to the benefit of our two nations," said Karimov.

Ukraine: Yanukovych Files Last Legal Appeal By Lisa McAdams
Kiev
14-January-2005

Ukraine's former Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych, has filed his last legal appeal with the Supreme Court over the December 26 rerun presidential election won by his rival, opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. The appeal has been eagerly awaited because once it is heard, it clears the way for the winner's inauguration.

Mr. Yanukovych's lawyer, Nestor Shuffrych, delivered more than 600 pages of documents to court officials Friday morning, arriving in a mini van to accommodate the large load.

Mr. Yanukovych, who had his first-round win annulled for fraud by the Supreme Court, alleges the second round was just as full of violations and is seeking that it too be overturned. The Supreme Court now has five days to examine the appeal and issue a ruling.

The justices have already ruled against at least 12 of Mr. Yanukovych's other appeals. But he has refused to concede.

Submission of this latest complaint has been repeatedly delayed in what Mr. Yushchenko's camp says is a deliberate attempt to prevent him from assuming office. Once the Supreme Court issues a ruling, parliament can set a date for the winners inauguration.

Charismatic Tymoshenko Says She Will Be Ukraine PM


By Ron Popeski

KIEV (Reuters) - Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who roused vast crowds during protests against election fraud, said on Saturday she believed she would be named prime minister once Viktor Yushchenko is finally inaugurated as president.


Leading Ukrainian opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko gestures during a news conference in Kiev January 15, 2005. Tymoshenko, who roused crowds during mass demonstrations backing president-elect Viktor Yushchenko in November, told reporters she believed Yushchenko would nominate her as prime minister. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Yushchenko, winner of last month's re-run of November's rigged presidential election, must weather a last legal challenge from loser Viktor Yanukovich before taking office. The Supreme Court is to examine Yanukovich's case on Monday, but the ex-premier said he has little chance of overturning the result.


Tymoshenko, 44, is seen as one of several possible candidates to take over government and begin implementing Yushchenko's agenda of cleaning up the ex-Soviet state's business affairs and moving closer to the West.


She said she believed her candidature would be put forward under an election pact she and Yushchenko struck last June.


"We concluded a formal agreement when we created our coalition, setting down our relations if we took power jointly," Tymoshenko, her blonde hair tied in a traditional Ukrainian braid, told a news conference.


"There is no ambiguity in this. It is all clearly written down in terms of the job of prime minister."


Asked whose name appeared in the accord, which reporters said they had not seen, she said: "I'll give you three guesses.


"I believe Viktor Andriyevich Yushchenko is an honest, moral politician and do not believe he will start by breaking a coalition agreement.


GAS PRINCESS


Known as the "gas princess" for her good looks and success in the energy business, she said her chances of being approved by parliament if nominated were "100 percent."


Yushchenko, a former prime minister, has accused Yanukovich of "torturing the nation" by persistently challenging the Dec. 26 vote. His staff hope to stage a grand inauguration which Tymoshenko said was likely to take place next Wednesday.


Yushchenko told an interviewer last month the coalition deal called for Tymoshenko's name to be put forward, but said a decision was subject to negotiation.


Hugely popular among nationalists, Tymoshenko is viewed with distrust by neighboring Russia and it is uncertain she could muster sufficient support in parliament. Her group controls 20 seats compared to about 100 for Yushchenko's Our Ukraine group.


Also viewed as a strong candidate is businessman Petro Poroshenko, a close aide of Yushchenko in Our Ukraine and head of parliament's budget committee. Others include two of the president-elect's campaign allies, Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz and technocrat Anatoly Kinakh.


Tymoshenko served as deputy prime minister while Yushchenko was head of government but was fired by President Leonid Kuchma, now leaving office after 10 years in power.


Charges of forgery and smuggling gas were brought against her in connection with her activities at the head of a private gas trading firm in the mid-1990s and an arrest warrant has been issued for her in Russia. She denounces the probes as baseless.

Before joining President Leonid Kuchma's foes, the 44-year-old Tymoshenko headed the now-defunct Unified Energy Systems, the country's predominant gas dealer, where she pushed through energy sector reforms that angered influential tycoons but won her praise from western observers.


Tymoshenko served as deputy prime minister under Pavlo Lazarenko, who was convicted in June in San Francisco of fraud, money-laundering and extortion. She was ousted from government in 2001, turning against Kuchma and forming a faction in the parliament.

Since 2001, prosecutors have opened several probes against her, and she was jailed briefly on charges of bribery, money-laundering, corruption and abuse of power while working for UES. She has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

Tymoshenko warned Tuesday that some privatization deals would definitely be reconsidered under a Yushchenko presidency, including the sale earlier this year of Ukraine's largest steel mill, Kryvoryzhstal, to a consortium run by Kuchma's son-in-law. Several major international steel companies complained the auction was rigged.

Ukraine: Capable Or Crooked?
Yuliya Tymoshenko Leaves Few Unmoved
By Jeremy Bransten

Admired by her supporters as a charismatic leader and castigated by her opponents as a corrupt turncoat, Ukraine's Yuliya Tymoshenko leaves few people indifferent. Now, Tymoshenko, who does not mince words, says she expects to be Ukraine's next prime minister.


Prague, 5 January 2005 (RFE/RL) -- She has compared herself to Joan of Arc and called outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma a "red-haired cockroach."

But Yuliya Tymoshenko can turn on the charm and win over an audience -- even in enemy territory -- as she demonstrated with a recent visit to the eastern city of Donetsk.

At the height of opposition demonstrations in Kyiv in December 2004 that forced a rerun of the presidential election, adoring crowds dubbed her the "Orange Princess."

Tymoshenko portrays herself as a tough-talking crusader, a passionate Ukrainian nationalist, and woman of the people who is on a mission to clean up the country's morass of government and business corruption.

It has been an amazing transformation.

A decade ago, Tymoshenko had no nationalist credentials. In fact, she spoke no Ukrainian and had no more than a pragmatic interest in politics. A trained economist from the eastern city of Dnipropetrivsk, she used her connections to former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko to build a natural gas trading empire that made her the country's richest businesswoman -- until her ambitions ran up against the designs of President Leonid Kuchma.

RFE/RL regional analyst Jan Maksymiuk explains: "In the 1990s, Tymoshenko was generally perceived as one of the most powerful oligarchs in Ukraine. Reportedly, in 1996, when she was the chairwoman of Ukraine's Unified Energy Systems, her company controlled one-fourth of the Ukrainian economy. But then she got into conflict with other oligarchs who were supported by Kuchma, and her career as a businesswoman ended."

While her career as a businesswoman may have been cut short, she proved more deft than Lazarenko, who had to step down. He ended up fleeing the country, only to be tried and convicted on 29 extortion and money-laundering charges in the United States, which he is now appealing.

In 1999, Tymoshenko joined the new reformist cabinet of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and turned against her former business partners with a vengeance. Tymoshenko was credited with forcing Ukraine's energy sector to pay back some $2 billion into state coffers and stripping the oligarchs of some of their power. "No doubt she's a pragmatist. But she's also a very passionate and determined pragmatist, and whatever she sets her eyes on, she goes for it in a big way."

Soon after she left the government in 2001, her legal troubles began. She was indicted on fraud and money-laundering charges and jailed for several weeks. A Kyiv judge eventually dismissed the charges against her.

Still, questions remain over what happened to Tymoshenko's share of the Unified Energy System profits.

"Nobody knows for sure. At one time, she was indicted for channeling more than $1 billion dollars abroad to foreign accounts. Some of those accounts were controlled by the infamous former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko. She was also indicted for gas smuggling, tax evasion, and a lot of other crimes. But she was able to shake off all those allegations. Everybody believes that she's a very rich person in Ukraine. But apparently, she doesn't pursue any business activity right now," Maksymiuk says.

Observers say Tymoshenko's short time in prison and the destruction of her business empire by Kuchma's allies -- which she calls politically motivated persecution -- had a profound psychological impact.

While such events might have crushed weaker personalities, Tymoshenko used them as a springboard to forge a new identity as an opposition crusader and born-again nationalist advocate, complete with traditionally braided hair and flawless Ukrainian.

So who is the real Tymoshenko? Cunning business woman or genuine reformer?

That has yet to be determined. But one thing is for certain. She is one of the smartest public figures in Ukraine and has always been fiercely determined to attain her goals -- be they in business or politics.

"No doubt she's a pragmatist. But she's also a very passionate and determined pragmatist, and whatever she sets her eyes on, she goes for it in a big way -- in a very determined, systematic, and effective way," says Kataryna Wolczuk, a Ukraine analyst at Britain's University of Birmingham. "So from that point of view, when she was a 'gas princess,' she did it in an extremely competent way -- milking the system to the extent it was possible under Lazarenko. When she became the deputy prime minister and tried to deal with the system which was created in the mid-1990s, again she was extremely competent and effective. And she trampled on many vested interests in Ukraine. So, in a way, she is a pragmatist, but whatever she does, she does it without compromising, and that's perhaps her greatest strength. But from the outgoing regime's point of view, it's the greatest threat she presents to them."

Tymoshenko told The Associated Press that she has a formal agreement with Yushchenko that leaves no alternative than for her to become prime minister after he is inaugurated as the country's new president.

Wolczuk says this demand poses a dilemma for Yushchenko. She is more than competent, but her polarizing nature means it could be difficult for the Yushchenko camp to win enough support among former Kuchma backers, who fear her.

Ironically, says Maksymiuk, Tymoshenko could also prove a threat to Yushchenko himself -- especially if reforms that cut the president's powers are enacted as planned.

"In the longer term, yes. If Tymoshenko becomes prime minister and if the political reform goes into action, as it is planned in 2006, then, of course, Tymoshenko could become the most powerful figure in Ukraine. So, that's perhaps why she's willing to be prime minister," Maksymiuk says.

Yushchenko's office has so far declined to say who will be nominated for prime minister.

Russia to pursue Tymoshenko case
By Damian Grammaticas
BBC News, Moscow


Russian authorities say they intend to pursue a criminal case for bribery against Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian MP nominated as prime minister.
Ms Tymoshenko was one of the leaders of the street protests that forced a re-run of the presidential election.

The announcement comes two days after the presidents of Ukraine and Russia staged a public show of reconciliation.

But it appears there will be serious difficulties in their relations after Ukraine's so-called orange revolution.

Russia's prosecutor-general says his office will continue to pursue a criminal case against Ms Tymoshenko, even though she is now Ukraine's prime minister-designate.

A court has already issued an order for her arrest if she visits Russia.

Radical's reward

Ms Tymoshenko has dismissed as politically-motivated accusations that she attempted to bribe officials in Russia's defence ministry when she was head of Ukraine's energy grid back in 1996.

It is alleged she wanted the officials to inflate the price of supply contracts with the Russian military by $80m (£42.5m).

At the start of this week, Ukraine's new President, Viktor Yushchenko, visited Moscow in an attempt to smooth over differences with President Vladimir Putin, who had openly backed his rival in the disputed election.

It surprised many that on the same day, Mr Yushchenko announced he had chosen Ms Tymoshenko to head his government. The choice is controversial and was bound to irritate Russia.

Ms Tymoshenko was one of the most radical and most prominent leaders of the month-long street protests in Ukraine's capital Kiev during the dispute over the presidential elections.

It is thought Mr Yushchenko has picked her to be prime minister to reward her for her role, and in the belief she can force through radical reforms.

But she is seen as an Ukrainian nationalist, and so is likely to alienate people in the Russian-speaking east and south of the country who backed Mr Yushchenko's rival in the election and who have close ties to Russia.

Yulia Timoshenko / Frame from First Channel



Created: 26.01.2005 MosNews

Russia's Prosecutor General said that Ukrainian acting Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko still faces criminal charges in Russia, and that a court would decide whether to press forward with an arrest warrant.

"(Timoshenko's) criminal case will be investigated under the law," Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov told reporters, referring to charges of bribery involving Russian military officials.

Timoshenko was appointed by President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday after he won an election against the Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovich. Shortly after meeting President Vladimir Putin, Yushchenko said that he was certain his aide would not face problems from Russian authorities and that the matter was settled. Russian news agencies, meanwhile, quoted Kremlin officials as saying Putin was most likely to let the Timoshenko case go.

Ustinov on Wednesday was questioned on the issue by reporters, who wanted to know specifically whether Timoshenko faced a threat of arrest if she visited Russia. "It is the court, rather than the prosecutor's office, which orders an arrest," Reuters quoted him as saying.

Timoshenko has denied charges of bribing Russian military officials when she headed the Ukrainian electric power grid. She says the charges were politically motivated by enemies of herself and Yushchenko.

Officials, whom Timoshenko was alleged to have bribed according to the initial charges made in 2001, were themselves cleared by a Russian court in 2003.