"The court comes to the rescue well when it’s necessary to protect RosUkrEnergo," former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said today after the court eight times objected to the defense’s questions to former Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov as to why in 2006 he allowed RosUkrEnergo to enter the Ukrainian market as an intermediary in relations between Naftohaz and Russia’s Gazprom.
Yulia Tymoshenko recalled that it was during the premiership of Yuriy Yekhanurov’s that a contract was signed on 4 January 2006 by Naftohaz, Gazprom and RosUkrEnergo on regulating gas relations, which opened the door for RUE to become involved in gas relations between Ukraine and Russia.
"Why didn’t you hold professional talks in 2005 directly with the prime minister of Russia to negotiate a good price for gas for Ukraine and allowed the corrupt structure RosUkrEnergo, which caused the gas crisis in 2009, to enter the Ukrainian market?" the ex-premier repeatedly asked Yuriy Yekhanurov in different ways.
Judge Rodion Kireyev warned Yulia Tymoshenko that she is allegedly asking questions that don’t relate to the case and insisted that she formulate them differently or withdraw them.
This isn’t the first time the presiding judge in the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko is demonstrating that even the slightest reference to RosUkrEnergo’s involvement in the change in conditions of supply and transport of natural gas is not welcomed by those who ordered this trial, Tymoshenko's official website reported.
For example, several days ago when former deputy head of the department for relations with Russia at Naftohaz Andriy Ivanov was testifying and said the words "RosUkrEnergo" and "advantageous", Judge Kireyev and the prosecutors accused Yulia Tymoshenko of allegedly offering the witness prepared answers rather than questions.
