You're reading: Tymoshenko: Yanukovych entourage aims at recognizing legitimacy of coalition before president’s trip to U.S.

The entourage of Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych is demanding a ruling on the legitimacy of the creation of the new coalition in the Verkhovna Rada and the government's formation from the Constitutional Court ahead of the head of the state's visit to the United States scheduled for April 11, ex-premier of Ukraine and BYT leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said.

"Representatives of Yanukovych have made a strict demand to the Constitutional Court – a ruling must be made that the coalition and the government are legitimate," she said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

Tymoshenko said that judges of the Constitutional Court are being invited to meet with representatives of Yanukovych, where they receive offers either to recognize the coalition and the government legitimate, or resign, in exchange for reasonable pensions and less important positions.

"$1 million is offered [to a judge] to make the required ruling to approve this coalition and the government," Tymoshenko said and added she obtained this information "directly from the Constitutional Court."

The BYT leader also claimed that judges of the Constitutional Court are threatened with proceedings against them or the Verkhovna Rada could dismiss them if they don’t make this ruling. Tymoshenko said that the BYT would use "all possible parliamentary methods" to prevent these dismissals.