Lawyers for the owner of Group DF are helping the former prime minister regain her lost position in big politics.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko reaffirms his intention to strip oligarchs of their former influence, which they have wielded for years to strengthen their control over the country's economy. He remained true to his rhetoric following Group DF owner Dmytro Firtash's statement about their close cooperation, which was made on April 30 at the Vienna Regional Court during the oligarch's extradition hearing to the United States, where he stands accused of corruption and creating a criminal organization.
The head of state himself chose not to comment on his relationship with Firtash, which Opposition Bloc MP Serhiy Levochkin also acknowledged, mentioning Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko in this context.
But representatives of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party in parliament did not ignore this episode. Yuriy Lutsenko, the head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction in the Verkhovna Rada, justified Firtash's statements by his desire to "integrate into the new Ukraine," and therefore views them as "solely the defense of a cornered predator." Svitlana Zalishchuk, a Bloc MP, citing US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, confirmed the intention of American lawyers to appeal the Vienna Regional Court's decision denying the extradition of the "odious Firtash."
Mustafa Nayyem, also a Verkhovna Rada member from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, published a response to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko's inquiry, in which the mayor denied the oligarch's funding of his political activities. "I have no intention of playing someone else's dirty games aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian government, including Kyiv, and destabilizing the situation in the capital and the country," stressed the mayor, whose opponents have repeatedly alleged his cooperation with the Kremlin. Now, Nayyem intends to use an Austrian court to demand documentary confirmation from Firtash of his previously disclosed information about his financial support for Ukrainian politicians.
As Forbes reported, during the April 30 court hearing, Dmytro Firtash also revealed a story that upended the understanding of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's international connections. Competitors, including those from the current Opposition Bloc, who testified in Firtash's case, had previously accused her of a pro-Russian political orientation and of protecting the Kremlin's interests. But now, thanks to Firtash's lawyers, the situation appears completely different.
Yulia Tymoshenko now has the opportunity to develop Dmytro Firtash's lawyers' narrative about her pro-Western priorities in order to successfully compete for political influence once again. Regional elections are expected soon in Ukraine, and political circles are not ruling out the possibility of extraordinary parliamentary elections later this year. This scenario could potentially involve support from Rinat Akhmetov, who has failed to reach an understanding with Petro Poroshenko and now risks losing key positions in the Ukrainian energy sector.
It turns out that Tymoshenko enjoys Washington's patronage, and her contacts in the US State Department are so strong that they allow her to dictate to Russian President Vladimir Putin the terms under which Gazprom's cooperation with Ukraine should develop.
As a result of this alliance, in 2009, Tymoshenko secured Vladimir Putin's support for plans to eliminate RosUkrEnergo, the intermediary created by Russia's Gazprom with the participation of Firtash, from the Ukrainian gas supply chain. Gazprom and Naftogaz then entered into a direct contract, eliminating the possibility of questionable transactions.
However, the basic pricing formula laid out in this agreement subsequently proved disadvantageous for the Ukrainian side: the price of Russian gas for Ukrainian consumers became higher than the European average, despite minimal transportation costs.
As a reminder, after Viktor Yanukovych, traditionally considered a pro-Russian politician, returned to power, the Kremlin refused to renegotiate the terms of gas cooperation with Ukraine, but agreed to provide a discount based on ad hoc agreements. In 2011, Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of power during the signing of gas contracts with Russia; Vladimir Putin's intervention failed to prevent her from being imprisoned.
In 2014, after Yanukovych fled, Tymoshenko was released early and acquitted. At the instigation of Arseniy Yatsenyuk's government, Naftogaz Ukrainy initiated legal proceedings against Gazprom in the Stockholm Arbitration Court, seeking to challenge the pricing formula in the 2009 contract, which is still in effect and unfavorable to the Ukrainian side.
During the election campaign for last year's snap parliamentary elections, both the pro-prime minister People's Front party and the pro-presidential Petro Poroshenko Bloc exploited this gas scandal to prevent Yulia Tymoshenko from rebuilding her political approval ratings: she clearly had a chance to make up for lost ground by exploiting her image as a "political victim of Yanukovych's dictatorial regime." The former prime minister's opponents succeeded.
Now, Tymoshenko has an opportunity to develop Dmytro Firtash's lawyers' narrative about her pro-Western priorities in order to successfully compete for influence in domestic politics once again. Regional elections are expected soon in Ukraine, and political circles aren't ruling out the possibility of extraordinary parliamentary elections later this year. This scenario could potentially involve support from Rinat Akhmetov, who has failed to reach an understanding with Petro Poroshenko and now risks losing his key positions in the Ukrainian energy sector.
However, Dmytro Firtash also shows no signs of backing down. Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur Mykhailo Brodskyi reported on his Facebook page that he recently saw the oligarch in Vienna in the company of former President Viktor Yushchenko, whose presidency saw the heyday of the Swiss trader RosUkrEnergo in the Ukrainian market. It's possible that the former head of state, who, according to Tymoshenko, lobbied for RosUkrEnergo and Firtash's interests in Ukraine, will testify in a Viennese court during the appeal hearing by American lawyers against the denial of the oligarch's extradition to the United States.
In previous interviews, Firtash had spoken positively of Yushchenko, citing Tymoshenko's appointment as prime minister as one of his main mistakes. Yushchenko, whose rise to power was accompanied by the Orange Revolution, also acknowledged Tymoshenko as a "personnel mistake." He harshly criticized his former ally for the 2009 gas contracts and believed her criminal prosecution was justified.
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