Huge obstacle, or "irritant"?

In an 'FT' blog entitled "Ukraine says Tymoshenko an ‘irritant’ to EU ties" Ukraine’s foreign minister, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, today acknowledged that the former prime minister had become more of a problem for his government in jail than free, noting her imprisonment has made an “association agreement” with EU almost impossible to finalise. “We [see] this issue as a certain irritant which obviously is not helping to move ahead with a positive agenda with the European Union." 

Foreign Minister Gryshchenko admits: ".. for the last 20 years almost every government official at the highest level presumed that they would never be asked to answer questions about their actions that were contradicting the law."

These actions by 'almost every government official that were contradicting the law' were almost always taken for self-enrichment.

Most of Gryshchenko's current cabinet colleagues, the current President, and members of his administration have held high office for many years in previous governments. Why aren't any them facing charges?

By charging and sentencing only their most feared opponents: former PM Yulia Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, accusations of selective justice will inevitably be made against today's authorities.

Ukraine's leaders remain amongst the most corrupt in Europe.