KIEV, Ukraine — Yulia V. Tymoshenko, once one of Ukraine’s most powerful and popular politicians, was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in prison, the culmination of a politically charged trial that could presage the end of the country’s short and often raucous experiment with democracy.Read the rest here.
The sentence was the maximum demanded by prosecutors on charges that Ms. Tymoshenko had harmed Ukraine’s interests when, as prime minister, she carried out negotiations with Russia in 2009 over the price of natural gas. Her supporters and many Western officials have insisted that her actions could hardly have amounted to a crime.
The ruling will likely put a freeze on Ukraine’s integration with Western Europe, which the country’s president, Viktor F. Yanukovich, has pursued even as he has flirted with the iron-fisted ruling style practiced in Moscow.
“This is an authoritarian regime that is distancing Ukraine from Europe, while using European rhetoric,” Ms. Tymoshenko said in the courtroom. Mr. Yanukovich, she said, “is bringing Ukraine back to 1937,” the height of the Stalinist purges.
The Terrible, Troubling Test
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2 comments:
That's unfortunate. I liked her hair.
A tad punitive for being Putin's buddy, but, on balance, she's still faring better than her buddy's opponents.
Is her hair earning Star Wars royalties?
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