Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said that fresh criminal charges have been brought against ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko for good reason.
"If the corresponding agencies have started such a criminal case, they had reasons for that," he told reporters in Uman, Cherkasy region, on Friday.
He added: "And what should they do? Pretend that they don’t know anything and that they haven’t noticed anything?"
Azarov also said that somebody had to answer for the $405.5-million debt that the Russian Defense Ministry is demanding from the Ukrainian government.
"Who has to answer for this? Those who took this decision and who dumped this debt on the country?" he said.
A new criminal case was opened against Tymoshenko for laying the burden of the debts of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine corporation on the Ukrainian budget.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that the reason for launching a new criminal case against the former Ukrainian prime minister was a letter from the Russian Defense Ministry to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which raised the issue of repaying the corporation’s debt of $405.5 million.
According to the SBU, charges under this case were brought against Tymoshenko on October 12.
However, Oleksandr Turchynov, the first deputy leader of the Batkivschyna Party, said that the Ukrainian Security Service had not brought any charges connected with the company’s debts against Tymoshenko.
"No charges have been brought against Tymoshenko," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
Tymoshenko’s defense lawyers remained in her cell until 1800 on Wednesday. After they left, at about 19.00, Security Service investigators "attempted to question Tymoshenko or serve some papers to her," but the ex-prime minister refused to talk with them in the absence of her defense lawyers, he said.
