You're reading: Tymoshenko’s husband thanks Obama, asks for more visa bans

Just a day after First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin's Dec. 3 letter to U.S. President Barack Obama was released publicly, another high-profile Ukrainian decided to write to him.

Oleksandr Tymoshenko,
husband of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, wrote to the
American president from his asylum in the Czech Republic to thank Obama for
cancellation of Kuzmin’s five-year visa and ask for more sanctions against
other officials.

“I hope that annulling the
visa and ban to enter USA for the first deputy prosecutor general Renat Kuzmin
will become the first practical step to full-scale action on behalf of USA and Western
countries to introduce sanctions against individuals who are involved in
political repressions in Ukraine,” Oleksandr Tymoshenko wrote in an open letter
posted on Batkivshchyna website.

Kuzmin’s visa was revoked
for traveling to the U.S. on work in July, despite holding only a tourist visa.
A diplomatic source told the Kyiv Post that Kuzmin made no formal arrangements
for working in America.

Analysts also say the visa
revocation was a warning to the Ukrainian political elite about rollbacks on
democracy and politically motivated criminal prosecutions of opponents, actions
that have strained Ukraine’s relations with the West after President Viktor
Yanukovych took power in 2010.

Oleksandr Tymoshenko, who is
seeking political asylum in Europe after his wife was convicted for seven years
on allegations that she abused her role as prime minister, has also made
several requests to Obama.

He asked to annul visas for
other officials, “representatives of the Yanukovych regime who are involved in
political repressions, primarily for Yanukovych, [General Prosecutor Viktor] Pshonka, [Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy] Khoroshkovskiy and other more than 50
persons, whose names were passed to Western governments by the Ukrainian
opposition.”

Oleksandr Tymoshenko also
requested that the U.S. government analyzes “corrupt activities of
representatives of the Yanukovych regime” who allegedly pocketed $52 billion in
the past two years.

He also asked Obama to
express his view on “falsifications of the parliamentary election in Ukraine on
Oct. 28,” and demand that Ukraine fulfills the demands of the Oct. 3 resolution
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and release political
prisoners.

He also asked for a medical
examination of former presidential guard Mykola Melnychenko, as well as a visa
ban for him also. His last two demands were a full audit of the government’s
economic activities in the past two years, and enforcement of the Sept. 22 U.S.
Senate resolution, which also calls for release of political prisoners.

“I hope for your understanding
and support, Oleksandr Tynoshenko wrote. “Do not delay. Every minute of delay
means Ukraine’s slide to totalitarianism.”

Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected].