So, "Tymoshenko is accused of causing a loss of some $190 million to the Ukrainian state because of a 2009 energy deal she signed with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin."
Has Putin or Gazprom ever admitted on the record that they would have sold the gas in question for $190 million less to NaftoHaz Ukrainy in the event that, in 2009, the Ukrainian side had been represented by anyone else? Not very likely...
So to claim anyone else would have got a better deal is pure conjecture..
Or does the prosecutor intend to prove Tymoshenko received a kick-back from Putin, as PM Azarov recently intimated? If the prosecutor intends to 'go down this route' what is Putin's reaction likely to be?
Yanukovych hastily cobbled together a subsequent gas deal and received a 30% discount on gas from Russia in the notorious Kharkiv agreement last year...but as the 'Kyiv Post' said at the time, the “discount” only gives shady gas-trading intermediaries fatter profit margins along the change from import to end consumer; the industrial-baron oligarchs are sure to benefit in all this murkiness.."
And recently PM Azarov received short shrift from Putin when he tried to renegotiate a better price one year later...so perhaps Yanukovych could be accused of selling the country short when he handed over Sevastopol to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in exchange for the 30% discount too. Maybe he could have got 35%? Or 40%? Who knows?
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Ukraine Pravda are running pieces on the government's case against Tym. The case doesn't seem to be on whether she lost money or not but the fact that she seems to have played fast and lose with the proper procedure. She seems to have pretended to Dubyna that she had the agreement of the cabinet which is needed by law when she did not. It was never bought to a vote because there weren't enough votes in favour. If true, she took powers to herself which she doesn't have and ran the show as if it were her own personal business. For that she would deserve a prison sentence in any country but it's true Ukraine isn't any country.
Secondly a commentator has pointed out that this trial may have a benefial effect on Ukranian corruption. So far the politicians have protected one another in front of the public (not in front of the children.....) now if the game is changed and the dirty laundry is displayed and if (perhpas a big if) the opposition wins an election in the future these politicians willnow hung as well.
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