MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Ukraine may have only five or so years left of independent statehood, according to Yulia Timoshenko, the leader of the Batkovshchina party.
Timoshenko, the former prime minister of Ukraine, accused the incumbent Ukrainian authorities of allowing the country to fall into the hands of foreign corporations, while depriving the population of any control over the country’s key industries and resources. "Today, not a single decision is made either by the Ukrainian people or the government appointed by the Ukrainian people <...>. The Ukrainian state and the Ukrainian people are being destroyed via every possible instrument," the politician said at a court hearing broadcast by TSN television to decide what punishment she will receive in the case of bribing Verkhovna Rada members.
Timoshenko added that she proposed measures to prevent such a scenario, including blocking certain draft laws endorsed by the government in the Rada. "Unless this work is done, the next five years will be the last in the life of an independent Ukraine. We will no longer have a coat of arms, a flag or a hymn. And we will have a nation scattered across the globe," she warned.
Timoshenko case
On January 14, Ukrainian media reported that Ukraine’s two anti-corruption agencies conducted overnight raids at the Batkovshchina party’s office in Kiev as part of the Rada bribery case. The information about the searches was later confirmed by Timoshenko herself. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said that charges of bribing parliamentarians were brought against the former Ukrainian prime minister. She may face five to 10 years behind bars.
A recording released by the NABU reveal Timoshenko offering MPs $10,000 per month for parliamentary voting in a specific way. In the audio, Timoshenko said her goal was to "break the majority" in parliament. The discussions that the NABU said had taken place on January 12 covered voting on draft laws for the current plenary week and recent government reshuffles.