Former Ukrainian Prime Minister and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has criticized assessed the opening of a criminal case regarding the attempted embezzlement of $405 million by former officials of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and officials of United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) and United Energy International Limited.
"The country’s main secret service man opened a case under the faked documents of 1996. I give you a hint: there is also a subject of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, in support of the Golden Horde," she wrote on Twitter early on Wednesday.
As reported, the central investigation department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) launched criminal proceedings into the alleged attempted embezzlement of $405 million by former members of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and officials from United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) and United Energy International Limited.
The former officials "conspired to embezzle, through abuse of office, a total of $405 million from the Ukrainian national budget," the SBU’s press center said on Tuesday.
The criminal case has been opened on charges of attempted massive misappropriation and embezzlement by an organized group.
The reason for opening the criminal case were appeals by Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov dated June 23 and June 29, 2011, to the SBU, as well as an appeal by Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to Ukraine’s government dated June 10, 2011.
"The criminal investigation is identifying all the officials involved in the crime," the press center said.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has asked Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to consider the repayment of a debt exceeding $400 million by United Energy Systems of Ukraine formerly led by Yulia Tymoshenko.
A photocopy of the letter published on the Web site of the Ukrainian magazine Focus says that as a result of "inappropriate fulfillment of agreements, United Energy Systems of Ukraine’s overall unpaid debt to the Russian Defense Ministry amounts to $405.5 million."
According to the photocopy, the matter implies obligations under a general agreement of May 29, 1996, a contract of July 25, 1996, and agreements of June 11, 1997 and June 30, 1997 on supplies of industrial technology products to the Russian Defense Ministry.
As of the moment of the debt’s accumulation, United Energy Systems of Ukraine was led by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Focus says.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said in response to the letter that the Ukrainian government had no intention of repaying the debts of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Tymoshenko denies the existence of any such debt to the Russian Defense Ministry.
