Turchynov says court ruling is political trick

Allies of former Ukrainian prime minister and leader of the Batkivschyna Party Yulia Tymoshenko view the decision of the Economic Court of Kyiv on the lawsuit by Russia regarding the debt of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) corporation as a dirty political trick and believe that Ukraine will not pay this debt.

"It is a dirty political trick… The sense of this trick is the following: Ukraine will not pay Russia a single kopeck in this lawsuit. Moreover, after the completion of the election process, the appeal or cassation court will overturn this ruling on the basis of non-existent guarantees," the campaign chief of the Batkivschyna United Opposition Oleksandr Turchynov said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

"These are the realities of Ukraine's dirty politics, these are the realities of the anti-state activities of the Ukrainian authorities, and this is another indication of how much they are afraid of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko - they are ready to take absurd decisions, to compromise the state in order to discredit her [Tymoshenko]," the politician said.

On Sept. 19, Kyiv Economic Court partially satisfied a suit from the Russian Defense Ministry concerning a debt accumulated by Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU), ordering Ukraine to pay 3.11 billion hryvnias ($400 million) to Russia's defense agency.

Russia's Defense Ministry, which laid claim to 3.24 billion hryvnias, was not satisfied with Ukraine's Cabinet being the sole defendant and demanded that the State Treasury Service be a co-defendant. UESU was a third party in the litigation.

The Russian ministry claims that, in the 90s, UESU, which was then headed by Yulia Tymoshenko, failed to meet its commitments on supplies for the Russian military under a 1997 agreement. The then Ukrainian government of Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko allegedly provided state guarantees that the commitments would be fulfilled.