A Ukrainian lawmaker has asked prosecutors in Kiev to arrest Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin over a 2009 natural gas deal with the former Soviet republic, local media reported.
Hryhory Omelchenko filed a request for the Ukrainian Security Service and Prosecutor General’s Office in Kiev to launch a criminal investigation into the Russian prime minister and arrest him, the Ukraina Moloda website said on Wednesday.
Omelchenko, who is not affiliated with any political party, said the gas deal caused “significant damage to Ukraine’s economic and national security.”
He also said Putin was an “accomplice in the crime committed by Yulia Tymoshenko.”
Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, was jailed in October last year over the contract.
Prosecutors ruled that Tymoshenko acted beyond her powers when she sealed the deal with Putin in 2009.
The contract was ruinous for the Ukrainian economy, the court ruled.
Tymoshenko, a leader of Ukraine’s 2004 Orange revolution, denies the accusations but lost an appeal against the verdict in December. She says her trial was politically motivated.
Western powers have condemned the conviction, and Putin said he could not understand why Tymoshenko was jailed.
Putin is widely predicted to win next month’s presidential elections. However, analysts suggest rising public discontent could see him forced into a runoff.
