05 October 2011

UKRAINE: Will President Yanukovich Spare Yulia From Jail For EU Access?

                                               REUTERS/ KYIVPOST

     Perhaps as soon as 11 October, the world will know if President Viktor Yanukovich will spare his arch-rival ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko...or send her off to serve 7 years in jail.
     Yanukovich is hiding his hand....while feeling intense pressure from the EU and USA to set her free.
     But...Yanukovich is a macho figure from the East's mining region who can't lose face with his constituency...or with the industrial barons who put him in office.
     Most oligarchs want Tymoshenko crushed as a political force.
     "If he (Yanukovich) puts her in jail she will become at a stroke the most famous dissident in Europe and who needs that?," claims analyst Viktor Nebozhenko.