Some Czech analysts believe that the Czech Republic had no reason to grant political asylum to Oleksandr Tymoshenko, the husband of imprisoned former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, former Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Ukraine Pavel Masa has said.
"From my observations, there are two groups in the Interior Ministry: pragmatists and idealists. The former proceed from economic interests when dealing with such sensitive matters as political asylum, whereas the latter are more concerned about the image of the Czech Republic, as s traditional defender of human rights. In the case of Oleksandr Tymoshenko, the idealists, who incidentally include [Czech Interior] Minister Jan Kubice, prevailed," Masa said in an interview with Deutsche Welle published on Monday.
At the same time, he dismissed the conjectures made in Ukraine that Oleksandr Tymoshenko was supposedly going to hide his wife’s assets in the Czech Republic.
"It’s known that Tymoshenko had business contacts in more than one EU country, so should the couple need a hiding place, they could have found it in any of them [the EU countries] – not necessarily in the Czech Republic. In addition, to hide the assets one does not need to flee from the country. There is no logic in this statement," the ex-ambassador said, adding that according to some reports, Oleksandr Tymoshenko got the idea to stay in the Czech Republic before his wife was sentenced to imprisonment.
"If we are talking about the motives of his conduct, I have greater confidence in the sources from the Batkivschyna party than in government," Masa said.
The ex-ambassador also said that he shared the view that granting political asylum to Tymoshenko’s husband would affect the Czech-Ukrainian relations, primarily economic relations.
"With the bureaucratic arbitrariness, which dominates in Ukraine, various obstacles will be put in the way of Czech businessmen, who are interested in certain governmental orders. There will be revenge, the same as happened in the case of the granting of political asylum to [Ukraine’s former Economy Minister] Bohdan Danylyshyn," Masa said.
