You're reading: Tymoshenko husband attacks Yanukovych from exile (updated)

The husband of Ukraine's jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said on Tuesday "enormous pressure" and persecution by President Viktor Yanukovych's government forced him to flee to the Czech Republic.

Oleksander Tymoshenko, 51, who was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic on Jan. 6, said in a statement that by fleeing abroad he had deprived Yanukovych of additional leverage over the opposition.

"The regime in Ukraine has not shied away from using dirty methods. They were not able to break Yulia Tymoshenko either through intimidation, the courts, imprisonment or torture. So they resorted to even uglier means. They began to persecute me and other members of her family," he said.

"I do not want to provide Yanukovych with any additional leverage against the opposition and for me political asylum is the only way to achieve this goal."

Oleksander Tymoshenko, who is part owner of a business registered in the Czech Republic, kept a low profile during his wife’s rollercoaster political career.

Yulia Tymoshenko, a charismatic politician, helped lead the 2004 Orange Revolution street protests which thwarted a first bid for the presidency by Yanukovich.

She went on to serve two terms as prime minister.

But, after Yanukovych made a comeback and beat her in an election for the presidency in February 2010, criminal proceedings were brought against her and other members of the opposition culminating in her prosecution last year.

HEALTH

She was jailed for seven years in October on a charge of exceeding her powers by forcing through a 2009 gas deal with Russia as prime minister which the Yanukovich government says saddled Ukraine with an exorbitant price for gas.

Her trial was condemned by the United States and the European Union as politically motivated and the affair has seriously strained Yanukovich’s ties with the West.

The 51-year-old, who is now being held in a prison in Kharkiv some 500 km (300 miles) away from the capital Kiev, has complained about poor health. On Tuesday, her supporters said she had fainted last week for unknown reasons.

"On Friday, Jan. 6, Tymoshenko suddenly fainted after taking medicine given to her by prison staff for her cold … She was unconscious for over two hours," Oleksander Turchinov, the deputy head of Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party, told reporters.

The state penitentiary service said in a statement on Jan 7 that Tymoshenko’s health was satisfactory.

Tymoshenko accused the Yanukovich leadership on Tuesday of seeking to sell out to Russia control over the pipeline network across Ukraine which takes Russian natural gas to European consumers.

"The GTS (gas transport system) is not simply a pipe with a large number of taps. It is the energy basis of our political independence," she said in a statement on the party’s website.

"I ask the Ukrainian people and parliament to defend the gas transport system from Yanukovych’s appetite," she said.

Ukraine and Russia are due next week to resume talks which the Kiev government hopes will lead to a reduction in the price of Russian gas it imports for domestic needs.

No firm details have emerged about what Moscow is seeking in return for a possible price cut.

But interest has focused on possible partial control by Russia over the Ukrainian pipeline network.