UKRAINE: Ukrainian acting Prime Minister Ms Yulia Tymoshenko still faces criminal charges in Russia, but it is up to a court to decide whether to enforce an arrest warrant issued last year, Russia's chief prosecutor said yesterday.
A Russian military court issued an arrest warrant for Ms Tymoshenko last September while she was helping Mr Viktor Yushchenko to prepare for an election campaign against the former Moscow-backed prime minister, Mr Viktor Yanukovich.
"[ Ms Tymoshenko's] criminal case will be investigated under the law," said the prosecutor, Gen Vladimir Ustinov, referring to charges of bribery involving Russian military officials.
Asked specifically if Ms Tymoshenko faced a threat of arrest if she visited Russia, he said: "It is the court, rather than the prosecutor's office, which orders an arrest."
Ms Tymoshenko has denied charges of bribing Russian military officials when she headed the Ukrainian electric power grid. She says the charges are politically motivated and instigated by enemies of herself and Mr Yushchenko.
Officials whom Ms Tymoshenko was alleged to have bribed, according to the initial charges made in 2001, were themselves cleared by a Russian court in 2003.
"Any attempts to revive falsified cases against Yulia Tymoshenko can be considered only as a pressure on the Ukrainian leadership," said Mr Oleksander Turchinov, a close aide to Ms Tymoshenko. He said the talk of criminal charges could be used by foes to discredit her ahead of a potentially tricky confirmation vote in parliament, the date of which has not been decided yet.
Mr Yushchenko defeated Mr Yanukovich in a December 26th re-run election after Ukraine's Supreme Court found the earlier election fraudulent.
Mr Yushchenko, visiting Poland, said Ms Tymoshenko's nomination as prime minister was logical because Ukrainians had seen the pair as a political tandem throughout the campaign. "I believe that Yulia Volodymyrovna [ Tymoshenko] will be able to perform her task," he said in Krakow.