Once it became clear that prime ministers Putin and Tymoshenko had decided to cut RosUkrEnerho out of their two countries' gas business to settle the most recent gas spat, Dmitro Firtash and Ivan Fursin, who own half of RUE were finished. [The other half of RUE is owned by Gazprom.]
On 29th January this year arrest warrants had allegedly been issued by the investigative committee of the RF prosecutor's office. According to investigators the two businessmen were taking refuge in Ukraine and were refusing to appear as witnesses in a case concerning Semyon Mogilevich.
Whatever the validity of their claim to their portion of RUE's gas stored in Ukraine, they have been 'hung out to dry' [abandoned when in trouble] by their RUE partners.
One respected Ukrainian investigative journalist says: "Everything is leading to Firtash being caught by the Russian FSB security services and locked up: and all of his assets, which the Ukrainian SBU security services are defending, will be confiscated [to benefit] the Russian budget."
The raid on Naftohaz's offices last week was a blunder. Yushchenko's control over the SBU has now been weakened.
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Foreignnotes has failed to make mention of recent news articles that indicate that the Yushchenko's political party Our Ukraine are on the verge of declaring bankruptcy and no longer.
Reports in the KyivPost today have indicated that moves are afoot for Our Ukraine to disown and abandon Yushchenko as its leader. Faced with the real prospect of becoming a defunct non-existent political party Our Ukraine are being forced to distance themselves from its leader Yushchenko. Reality has set in and Yushchenko is widely considered to be a failed president who has no prospect of being elected to a second term of office.
No even the Millions of dollars that Firtash could deliver to Yushchenko's re-election campaign could resurrect his political career.
The best thing Yushchenko could do now is to announce his resignation in order to facilitate an early Presidential election and a ballot in September or October. The prospect of a prolong Presidential campaign and a ballot in January,Ukraine's coldest month, is not in Ukraine's best interest. If Yushchenko resigns now then he may be in a position to exert some influence in the outcome of the next presidential election and assume the role of elder statesman.If he clings on to his term of office then he will only fall further into disgrace and irrelevance. Yushchenko has lost all respect and authority and his influence over Ukraine is non existent. the longer he prolongs his term of office the worst his position will get.
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