Life after court ruling

Do pobachennia vsim – “Good-bye to all” – said Yulia Tymoshenko, being led by police officers out of the courtroom at the Pechersk District Court in downtown Kyiv, after hearing her sentence: seven years in prison and a three-year ban on any executive/administrative positions, anywhere in Ukraine. This and the Regional Court ruling banning any rallies in downtown Kyiv, effective October 11-12.

Under the circumstances, the first question that comes to mind is: “What country are we living in?” Only recently we seemed to live in a post-Soviet country with civil rights and liberties second best to those in the Baltic States. We had long realized that all this was an illusion, except on Tuesday these illusory liberties finally vanished.

Says BYuT member Ostap Semerak: “I recently visited a NATO session and screened a documentary about Tymoshenko. Then Romanian President Traian Basescu took the floor and clearly divided the neighboring countries into two categories: (a) Moldova, Georgia, Turkey, and (b) Belarus and Ukraine. People elsewhere in the world see Ukraine as another Belarus. We have to live with this reality.”

This attitude was justified on Tuesday when Yulia Tymoshenko heard her verdict. That same day German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle declared that Tymoshenko’s prison term will have a negative effect on Ukraine-EU relations. The foreign ministries of France and Poland made similar statements.

In Brussels, European MP Dariusz Wolski confronted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryshchenko and said Ukraine didn’t deserve to even expect a remote possibility of EU membership (Hryshchenko was there to negotiate this issue – few if any would want to fill his shoes). He went on to say: “You don’t need membership prospects in regard to any documents. You don’t deserve any membership prospects. The Ukrainian leadership has values other than the European ones.”

Optimistic voices are still heard in Europe, saying Yulia Tymoshenko will be released before long, as ruled by the Court of Appeal.

“No one can be thrown behind bars on charges effective under obsolete legislation,” Stefan Fuele, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy, naively believes in Brussels, adding, “Doubtlessly a solution to this problem must be found. There is a parallel decriminalization process underway, in regard to certain [Criminal Code] clauses that are at the core of the trial over Tymoshenko. Also, the appeal proceedings haven’t been completed. I’m closely following this case. We still believe that this problem can be solved.”

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