Tymoshenko says another criminal case against her linked to Putin's visit

Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said the opening of another criminal case against her is linked to the arrival of high-ranking Russian officials in Ukraine on Tuesday. "All this is being done for another political event. The only thing I'm afraid of is how quickly today a new criminal case on gas agreements was announced so that tomorrow [on April 12] under the guise of the allegedly wrongly signed gas agreements, [the government will] continue to surrender the national interests, in particular, closing the way to a free trade zone with the European Union," she said at a briefing after her visit to the Prosecutor General's Office on Monday.

"I believe that in the near future, when they announce that Ukraine is joining the Customs Union, they will again 'blame the daughter-in-law' because she signed the wrong gas agreements," she added.

The opposition politician called this "a theatre of politically absurd."

"I believe that due to this fact you can clearly see that all of this is being fabricated - this is just a campaign. This is done not in the prosecutor's office, but in the office of [Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych," she said.

Tymoshenko again stated that all of the cases against her were fabricated.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has opened another criminal case against Tymoshenko concerning her exceeding her authority and abusing office in signing gas contracts in 2009.

The case was opened under part three of Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It was established that actions of the former premier caused damages to the state worth Hr 1.5 billion.

Earlier, the Prosecutor General's Office completed a pre-trial investigation into two criminal cases against Tymoshenko under Part 3 of Article 365, Part 2 of Article 364 and Part 2 of Article 210 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (the abuse of power or office, which entailed grave consequences and violation of the budget legislation).

On Tuesday, April 12, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov are to pay a working visit to Ukraine.

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