The criminal inquiry into the unfavorable gas contracts with Russia signed by Ukraine was initiated during the presidency of Viktor Yuschenko by the National Security and Defense Council, with today's authorities becoming a hostage to this situation, leader of the Party of Regions' parliamentary faction Oleksandr Yefremov said on the Channel 5 television.
The then prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, made every effort to thwart the inquiry, he said.
"The opening of the criminal case against Tymoshenko was initiated not by Yanukovych. It was opened by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (SNBO) in February 2009. At the time, we were in opposition, and so was Yanukovych. It was done at the initiative of President Yuschenko," Yefremov said.
The agreements were signed in January 2009, "and in February the SNBO concluded that this agreement is detrimental to the interests of our state, it was signed with unclear goals, and this agreement requires an investigation by law enforcement authorities," he recalled.
"Tymoshenko allowed neither Yuschenko, nor the public to publish the agreement signed with the Russian Federation, which is nonsense for a prime minister not to be disclosing the essence of a signed document before the public and the president. […] We [the current authorities] are the hostages, the initiators are totally different people, not from our team," Yefremov said.
"During the period when Tymoshenko was the prime minister, she would do anything to stop these documents from being unveiled and would not let law enforcement agencies do their job – it is a fact, although investigators were probing this case during the Yuschenko period," he added.
