SELIGER, August 29 (RIA Novosti) – Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko violated no laws when she signed a gas deal with Russia, and her persecution by the former Ukrainian leadership damaged ties between Kiev and Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
“When Tymoshenko was sent to prison, we clearly articulated our stance on the issue: I usually said [that] I considered the use of criminal law methods in politics inadmissible. This had a negative impact on Russian-Ukrainian relations. We were convinced that her signing of gas contracts with Russia constituted no crime,” Putin said.
Tymoshenko served two terms as prime minister under Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and narrowly lost to Viktor Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential election.
In 2011, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in jail for abuse of office for personal benefit for signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. According to the prosecution, the conditions of the agreements caused large-scale material damage to Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz amounting to roughly $190 million. The opposition called the sentence politically motivated.
In February 2014, the former prime minister was released under a parliamentary decree after the crime she was accused of was decriminalized.
The Ukrainian Supreme Court cleared Tymoshenko of all charges related to the signing of the contract between Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Russia’s Gazprom.
