During questioning at Pechersky District Court of Kyiv former Ukrainian Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko said he was not qualified to evaluate Ukraine's 2009 contracts for gas supplies with Russia.
Pavlenko spoke of his participation in a government meeting on January 19, 2009, during which talks on gas supplies with Russia were discussed.
"The Family, Youth and Sports Ministry is not competent in the issues of gas supplies in the country, that is why I did not participate in the discussion," Pavlenko said.
According to the former minister, First Vice Premier Oleksandr Turchynov said that the gas talks with Russia were difficult and the Ukrainian premier needed the cabinet members’ assistance. In particular, Turchynov said that adoption of respective instructions could help.
At the same time, Pavlenko said that no documents were adopted during the meeting and Turchynov said that those instructions were not necessary, as Tymoshenko had enough power to take such decisions.
In the course of the questioning, Pavlenko refused to comment on the gas topic, saying he was not qualified to do so.
When asked about the following meeting of the government on January 21, which was chaired by Tymoshenko, the witness said he did not vote for the documents on the results of the talks with Russia, as he did not know enough about the content of the concluded agreements.
"I’m sure I did not vote for [the document], and I didn’t vote for it because the members of the government did not have sufficient information about the results of the talks," the former minister said.
Judge Rodion Kireyev read aloud Pavlenko’s testimony from the pre-trial investigation and asked whether copies of the draft instruction on the signing of the gas contracts were distributed to the members of the government on January 19, 2009.
Pavlenko said he was not sure that "certain documents" were the draft instruction.
The judge said that Pavlenko’s testimony during the court hearing regarding the documents was different from the testimony he gave during the pre-trial investigation.
The judge again asked the formed minister exactly which documents were distributed at the meeting of the government.
Tymoshenko’s lawyer Yuriy Sukhov at this point said, "One and the same question cannot be asked several times – this is pressure on the witness."
The former premier’s defense asked for this to be entered in the record of court proceedings.
