Ukraine

The European football championships, due to be held in Poland and the Ukraine next month, are rapidly becoming the focus of a political standoff. Several EU leaders, including Angela Merkel and Jose Barroso, have threatened to boycott the matches in the Ukraine in protest at the treatment of the country’s former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years in October 2011, charged with abuse of power during her time in office in relation to a gas contract signed with Russia in 2009. However, her conviction was widely denounced by the Western international community, with the EU describing it as “justice being applied selectively under political motivation” and was seen by many as revenge being exacted by her political nemesis, Ukraine’s current President Viktor Yanukovych.

But it is not merely the circumstances under which she was imprisoned that are worrying the international community. Doctors from Germany and Canada who examined her in February 2012 say that Tymoshenko is seriously ill, and is not receiving adequate treatment for her condition. Her daughter, Eugenia, says that she is suffering from a spinal disc hernia. German specialists have offered to treat her in Berlin, but Kiev is refusing to allow her to leave. International outrage was fuelled at the end of April when images emerged of her with bruises on her arms and stomach, which she claims were caused by prison guards brutally beating her. Ukrainian officials argue that she inflicted the injuries upon herself. She commenced a hunger strike in protest after this incident.

Earlier this week, after Yanukovych was forced to cancel a summit of central and European leaders due to be held in Yalta after several said they would not attend due to Tymoshenko’s plight, authorities yielded and she was moved to hospital in Kharkiv for treatment for her back condition and for the effects of the hunger strike, which she has now ended. They are still refusing to allow her to go abroad for treatment, but as a compromise German doctors will treat her in Kharkiv. [1]

Nicknamed “Lady Yu” and the “gas princess” due to her making millions running an energy company in the early 1990s, Yulia Tymoshenko is one of the most fascinating women in European politics. She became a politician in 1996, and was a key figure in Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” in 2004. Along with her ally Viktor Yushchenko, she led the protests against Yanukovych’s rigged election victory, and eventually succeeded in ousting him, with Yushchenko taking over as President and she becoming the first female Prime Minister of the Ukraine. A glamourous blonde in a man’s world, she attracted international attention, with Forbes magazine naming her the 3rd most powerful woman in the world in 2005.

However, she and Yushchenko had been in power for a matter of months when their relationship began to disintegrate. In September of 2005, he dismissed her government and sacked her as Prime Minister. They eventually patched up their differences, and she was reappointed in September 2007, but the disagreements continued. She ran against him for President in 2010, but a combination of the economic crisis and the constant squabbling between the pair had led to much of their popularity evaporating, and they both lost out to their old foe, Viktor Yanukovych. Tymoshenko claimed that the election was again rigged, but international monitors found nothing untoward. [2]

And now, eight years after the Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko is back in the international spotlight, and once again, the pressure is on Viktor Yanukovych. If Kiev does not, at the very least, allow her to continue to receive the medical treatment it appears she so desperately needs, then the football showpiece could turn into a political nightmare.

Image source: European Commission

Those were the words of Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze as the rhetorics were stepped up in the wake of the 2-4 April NATO meeting in Bucharest, Romania. Georgia and Ukraine are eager to receive approval for their membership action plans. The US, Poland and other Eastern member states are pushing for recognition of the membership bids of the former Soviet states. An alliance of Germany, France, Spain, Italy and other West-European countries are, however, opposed to granting candidate status to Georgia and Ukraine. Russia has expressed its outright opposition to seeing more of its neighbours joining the military organisation and the West-European states seem eager to avoid another showdown with Russia on words. Instead they opt for a more consensual strategy out of a fear of annihilating Russia even more. The question is which of the two approaches is the best strategy.

Ukraine should become a member of the WTO in 2008 thanks in part to the backing of the EU. The Ukrainian deputy Prime Minister and Trade Commisioner Peter Mandelson sealed a deal in London last week allowing for the European endorsement . The accession of Ukraine should be adopted in a vote involving WTO members on February 5th. Ukraine is the third largest state to remain outside of the WTO (Iran and Russia being the largest ones) and a very significant partner for the EU. 42% of Ukraine imports come from the 27 member States and a quarter of its exports are EU bound. This could be a very significant political success for the pro-western coalition in power led by Ioulia Timochenko and will have an impact on Russia’s accession process. Moscow will have to get the assent of all WTO members including Ukraine to finalise its own accession. For once Kiev could have the upper hand and dictate its conditions, which is bound to irritate the Kremlin… It is up to the Ukrainians to make the best of the situation and help appeasing the tensions that have been straining the neighbours’ relations over the last couple of years.