Farcical performances by Ukrainian officials at YES

The 9th Annual Yalta Economic Strategy summit ended over the weekend. It was streamed live on the the Euronews site and elsewhere, and made interesting, even compulsive viewing.

'Kommersant' have a good write-up of the event.

Their conclusions: The EU and Ukraine did not hear one another in Yalta...But the most talked about performance was that of the black-hearted deputy prosecutor-general, Renat Kuzmin, who seemed out of his depth during a session about Ukraine and the Tymoshenko case.

This is what 'Kommerant' said:

"After the discussion was concluded, Renat Kuzmin left the forum, leaving its members to exchange their opinions - they were all negative. "This performance was the best anti-propaganda for the Ukrainian authorities. He looked like a bandit, behaved like a bandit and spoke like a bandit," said indignant  Senior Fellow Peterson Institute for International Economics, Anders Aslund. "I have no idea for what purpose he was sent here. I did not find any person, who was convinced." said former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer."

Euronews described the session as "...almost farcical. Supporters of the jailed former Ukrainian prime minister railed loudly that the trial was unfair and political. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister and its Chief Prosecutor [sic] gave lengthy but completely irrelevant answers seemingly designed to play for time.."

Inna Bohoslovska, another member of the panel, countered criticisms of Tymoshenko's imprisonment with a vitriolic and totally irrelevant attack against the Germans. The Council of Europe's GRECO [Group of States against Corruption] "..has shown Germany a yellow card for a third time and are demanding criminal charges be brought against certain persons for exceeding their authority!" she trumpeted. [An unfortunate analogy - according to the rules of soccer, a second yellow card means a player is sent off the field of play.]

An agitated Ukr Foreign minister Hryshchenko, when accused by Tymoshenko ally Hryhoriy Nemyria of prejudicially declaring Tymoshenko  to be guilty before any verdict had been passed by court, pleaded: "I never travelled around the world saying Yulia is guilty or not. I defended our national interests which you you tried to sully...this is my job...and I will do this even if if it applies to my neighbour, my close friend, of even personally to you Viktor [Pinchuk, who was sitting next to Hryshchenko in the front row], I would do the same, if the court found him guilty..."

Former president Kuchma, sitting in the next seat along from his son in law, Viktor Pinchuk,  wittily retorted: "Thank God he didn't get to me...", to wry amusement of the audience...Renat Kuzmin, who was sitting directly opposite Kuchma on the podium, and who had, in previous years tried to 'nail' Kuchma for the Gongadze murder, sat stone-faced through this exchange.

Seriously, 'Kommersant' also claim: 'the Russian vector was strengthened - a significant delegation from Moscow was in attendance..."at the Y.E.S. president Viktor Yanukovych increasingly gravitated not to the West, but to the East".