Gas and the Orange coalition

Many political observers explain the mutual problems between Tymoshenko and Yushchenko as partly being a clash between prima-donnas. The quote below from today's 'The Independent' is typical:

"[The premiership] was a job she [Tymoshenko] did until September of last year, when Mr Yushchenko abruptly sacked her for allegedly spending too much time polishing her own image, for apparently being too radical on the economy, and for picking too many fights with some of his closest advisers."

But perhaps the main reason for her sacking involves corruption and money made by the intermediaries and their secretive beneficiaries in the Russia-Ukraine gas trade. Tymoshenko's #2 and former SBU chief Oleksandr Turchynov described soon after Tymoshenko's sacking how Yushchenko himself ordered a halt to his investigations into these matters, commanding him to "stop persecuting his men" because it was "creating a conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin."

Tymoshenko has made it clear many times that if she becomes PM she will renegotiate the the entire Russian-Ukrainian gas arrangement from scratch - something both Russian government and President Yushchenko have declared is not a good idea. Some have suggested she will do this not wholly for altruistic reasons. She even brought down the Yekhanurov government on 10th January this year over the opaque details of the newly agreed Russian-Ukrainian gas accords, so causing a major constitutional crisis. It's no surprise then that during the parliamentary election campaign Yekhanurov stated clearly that he would not work with Tymoshenko 'under any circumstances'.

The smell of gas [sorry..] will continue to hang heavy over any orange coalition building.

Curiously newly-elected BYuT parliamentary deputy and newspaper editor Oleh Lyashko revealed on the Russian language service of Radio 'Svoboda' today that Oleksandr Turchinov has been hospitalized, and that there is a suspicion that he may have been poisoned."There are some facts that would indicate an unnatural reason for him to be in hospital," said Lyashko. However Tymoshenko's press secretary says he has no information whether Turchinov was poisoned.