Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday a new inquiry into Ukrainian ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko was connected with her private company’s debts to Russia's Defense Ministry, and has nothing to do with intergovernmental relations.

“The debt is here from a private Ukrainian company to the Defense Ministry. That's all what  I think,” Lavrov said refusing to elaborate, RIA Novosti reports.

Lavrov earlier described the first criminal case against Tymoshenko as politicized. He said a former premier could not be judged for a gas contract whose legal basis had never been questioned.

The security service said the new case had been opened after the Russian Defense Ministry sent a letter to the Ukrainian cabinet in June demanding that the debt be paid.

Russia had earlier opened a criminal case against Tymoshenko but closed it due to a statute of limitations when she became premier in 2007.

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