YALTA, Ukraine - Despite being in prison, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko made life exceedingly difficult for President Viktor Yanukovych this week.
Dozens of European and American leaders called, wrote and talked to him about the nation’s dismal international prospects if she does not return to active politics very soon.
This point has been hammered into Yanukovych’s head by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and through a joint letter by US State Secretary Hillary Clinton and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Most recently, the same message was delivered at the Yalta European Strategy forum by a trio of European politicians representing the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council.
They said that unless Ukraine can show that it can deliver on daily basis the fundamental rights and freedoms to all its citizens, it can forget both the Deep and Comprehensive Trade Agreement with the European Union and talks about the visa-free agreement.
“There is a feeling in Brussels that if Ukraine does not deliver on those values, if the former prime minister is put in prison based on article in the criminal code which originated deep under communism, the relationship will hardly be the same,” said Stefan Fule, commissioner for EU Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy, after a tough two-hour negotiation session with President Viktor Yanukovych.
Together with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and European Parliament Member Elmar Brok, he tried to explain to the president of Ukraine that effective negotiations and figures – although important – are far from enough if the country is serious about its European ambitions. Earlier in the day Yanukovych once again talked about this ambition.
The arrest of Tymoshenko came on Aug. 5 and caused an explosive reaction in the West. The president’s administration, however, until recently dismissed Western criticism as an over-reaction of “Tymoshenko’s fan club.”
But there are indicators that things might be turning around, and the president’s friends have realized the need to find a solution. Yanukovych himself said that the crimes allegedly committed by Tymoshenko fall under the criminal code that was initiated in 1962, and is, of course, outdated.
“Unfortunately, in the last 20 years we have not managed to change it,” he lamented at the YES forum.
The trio of negotiators from Brussels said they had a strong impression that Yanukovych will proceed with decriminalizing article 365 of the criminal code to let Tymoshenko off the legal hook. “We have been given assurances that not only is he aware of the problem, but is actively trying to find solution,” Fule said. He said that the technicalities are up to the Ukrainian side, though.
He said Ukraine is facing a tough “political calendar” to find and implement the solution to the Tymoshenko puzzle. Later this month, the president will once again be grilled by his peers and other politicians at the Eastern Partnership summit in Poland, then at the Ukraine-EU summit in Brussels, where the Deep and Comprehensive Trade Agreement is scheduled to be finalized.
But keeping the former prime minister in prison is “incompatible with the values that are represented by the agreement,” Fule said.
Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, is not sure whether Yanukovych has learned from the diplomatic cold shoulders he’s been getting. "If you’ve dug yourselves into a hole, you have to stop digging and start climbing out. I think we’re at the stage of stop digging now," Bildt said.
Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected]
