Most Ukrainians do not see the trial and Tuesday's conviction of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is blamed for 2009 natural gas contracts with Russia that have allegedly been damaging to Ukraine, as a politically motivated frame-up, an opinion poll suggests.
"The court trial has neither produced an image of Yulia Tymoshenko in the mass consciousness as a victim of political persecution nor served to raise her electoral rating. In March, 18.8% of respondents supported Tymoshenko and in October 18.3% did [respondents who would have votes in a presidential election if the latter were held shortly]," the Sofia opinion studies center said in a report.
The survey was taken from September 30 to October 6, before Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court passed its guilty verdict on Tymoshenko and sentenced her to seven years’ imprisonment and a huge fine.
Sofia said 43.5% of respondents had expressed support for the changes against Tymoshenko and 39.2% had dismissed them as false while 17.3% had been undecided.
Asked what they would see as the reason for Tymoshenko’s possible acquittal, 33% said she this might be the result of Western pressure, 22.3% said Tymoshenko might get her freedom back by striking a political deal with the government, 15% said there might be a lack of implicating evidence, and 11.6% said she might be proved innocent.
Sofia said it had questioned 2,020 people in 125 cities, towns and villages in all of Ukraine’s 27 regions.
