Ukraine's Yulia Tymoshenko: Glamorous, Divisive, Imprisoned

KIEV, Ukraine -- Yulia Tymoshenko became a world icon of democratic change during Ukraine's Orange Revolution protests of 2004, a riveting figure both for her ringing denunciations of election fraud and the distinctive golden braid she wrapped around her head.

She was more exciting to protesters than her Orange Revolution partner Viktor Yushchenko, who claimed he had been robbed of victory in presidential elections. Tymoshenko became prime minister when Yushchenko won a court-ordered election rerun.

The facade of unity soon cracked and the two leaders quarreled incessantly. Yushchenko fired her after nine months, but she returned to the premiership in 2007. The tensions between them virtually paralyzed the government.

In 2010, Viktor Yanukovych rode a wave of voter discontent to narrowly beat Tymoshenko for the presidency. He was the very man the Orange Revolution accused of trying to steal power from Yushchenko.

Tymoshenko's troubles were only beginning.

In 2011, she was arrested and charged with abusing power as premier in a natural gas deal with Russia. Tymoshenko said the proceedings were naked revenge, and Western governments voiced concern about a politically motivated prosecution.

International criticism of Ukraine grew after she was convicted and sent to prison.

In jail, the 51-year-old Tymoshenko has suffered chronic back pain, but refuses treatment in a Ukrainian clinic because she claims she could be mistreated more severely. Last week, she began a hunger strike after claiming guards abused her when taking her to a hospital against her will.

Even before achieving global fame, Tymoshenko was a vivid figure in Ukraine. She and her husband took early advantage of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika reforms by creating a popular video rental business.

They later founded a fuel distribution company and she went on to become head of Unified Energy Systems, a natural gas middleman.

In that post, she became one of Ukraine's richest and most powerful oligarchs – dubbed "The Gas Princess."

She is now on trial for allegedly evading millions of dollars in taxes while heading UES.

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• Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko speaks to press in front of a court building in Kiev on on August 5, 2011, moments before she was arrested. A Kiev court placed former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko under arrest, amid her trial on charges of abuse of power while in office, an AFP correspondent reported.(Getty)

• Supporters of Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko cheer and shout slogans in front of the Pechersk district court on August 8, 2011 in Kiev as Tymoshenko's return to trial today on charges of abuse of power over gas deals she signed with Russia in 2009. (Getty)

• A supporter of detained Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko demonstrates with hundreds of people in Kiev on August 24, 2011, trying to march to the offices of President Viktor Yanukovych and defying a court ban to stage a tense protest on Independence Day. A Kiev court banned the day before the protest which is being held to mark the 20th anniversary of the Ukrainian parliament's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. (Getty)

• A Ukrainian opposition lawmaker stands on September 6, 2011 next to a giant poster, featuring former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with the slogan, reading: 'No political repression,' in the parliament while President Viktor Yanukovych addresses the floor during a ceremony marking the opening of a new parliament session in Kiev. Tymoshenko's supporters argue her ongoing trial on abuse of power charges and her arrest are part of a vendetta pursued by the Regions Party of Yanukovych against her faction. (Getty)

• A huge poster placed by opposition lawmakers, featuring former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with slogans, reading: 'No political repression' and 'Free Ukraine!' covers a part of the Ukrainian Parliament while President Viktor Yanukovych addresses the floor on September 6, 2011 during a ceremony marking the opening of a new parliament session in Kiev. (Getty Images)

• Police officers block on September 27, 2011 supporters of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in front of the Pechersk district court in Kiev. Ukraine began final hearings on September 27 in the trial of Tymoshenko after a two-week suspension that saw Kiev come under renewed EU pressure to release the opposition leader and ex-premier. Tymoshenko's abuse of power trial has set the current leadership at odds with the European Union in the heat of crunch negotiations on Ukraine taking the first step towards European Union membership. (Getty)

• Riot policemen block supporters of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in front of the Pechersk district court in Kiev on September 27, 2011. Ukrainian prosecutors today demanded a seven-year sentence for opposition leader and ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko in an abuse of power trial that has undermined Kiev's budding relations with the EU. (Getty )

• An elderly woman, supporter of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko holds placards with her portraits during a protest in front of Pechersk district court in Kiev on September 28, 2011. (Getty )

• A woman, supporter of former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, shouts slogans before a line of police in front of Pechersk district court in Kiev on September 30, 2011. The court on Friday announced the judge will start reading the verdict on Tymoshenko's case from October 11. (Getty)

• A protester forms a heart shape with his hands as he demonstrates his support for Yulia Tymoshenko outside the court where she is being tried, after breaking a police cordon, in Kiev, on September 30, 2011. (Getty)

• A police vehicle supposedly carrying Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko leaves the Pechersk district court in Kiev on September 30, 2011. (Getty)

• Supporters of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko shout slogans in front of Pechersk district court in Kiev on September 30, 2011. (Getty)

• Supporters of the former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko breal a police line in front of Pechersk district court in Kiev on November 11, 2011. (Getty )

• Ukraine's former Yulia Tymoshenko (L), her daughter Yevgenia and husband Alexander react after Judge Rodion Kireyev of the Kiev Pechersky court rendered his verdict on her case on October 11, 2011. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in jail for abusing her powers in a 2009 gas deal with Russia, a verdict that is set to harm ties with the European Union. Kireyev said the 10-year contract for gas imports from Russia had sustained heavy losses for Ukraine and ruled that her actions were criminal. AFP PHOTO / SERGEI SUPINSKY (Photo credit should read SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images)

• Riot policemen block supporters of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (appearing on a poster) in front of Pechersk district court in Kiev on October 11, 2011.(Getty)

• Lawyer Mykola Siryi (L) looks at his client Yulia Tymoshenko in court in Kiev on October 11, 2011. A Ukrainian judge on Tuesday sentenced former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in jail for abusing her powers in a 2009 gas deal with Russia, a verdict that is set to harm ties with the European Union. Amid emotional scenes in the packed court, judge Rodion Kireyev said the 10 year contract for gas imports from Russia had sustained heavy losses for Ukraine and ruled that her actions were criminal. (Getty)

• Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko listens as Judge Rodion Kireyev of the Kiev Pechersky court reads his verdict on her case on October 11, 2011. (Getty)

• Policemen escort Ukraine's former Yulia Tymoshenko out of the court after Judge Rodion Kireyev of the Kiev Pechersky court rendered his verdict on her case on October 11, 2011. (Getty)

• Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (L), her daughter Yevgenia and husband Alexander react after Judge Rodion Kireyev of the Kiev Pechersky court rendered his verdict on her case on October 11, 2011. (Getty)

• Special police hold back the crowd of journalists trying to go to Kiev Pechersky court to cover Yulia Tymoshenko verdict reading in Kiev on October 11, 2011. (Getty Images)

• Pro-Yulia Tymoshenko protesters demonstrate their support as they sit and shout slogans outside the court. (Getty)

• Supporters of the former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko break a police line in front of Pechersk district court in Kiev on October 11, 2011. (Getty Images)

Comments

[Meldy1]

04:22 AM on 05/01/2012

@Enso,But Ukraine is still governed by Stalinisque Ukrainian men!FYI...this is my reply to someone commenting in here..@Enso.(Russia still calls the shots when it comes to judicial process).Now look who's going to school...

[Enso]

10:43 AM on 05/01/2012

Childish prattle.

[rissole]

12:49 AM on 05/01/2012

Sounds to me like Ukraine is really doing a number Yulia Tymoshenko. Hillary Clinton's silence is deafening. Guess the call for human rights has gone out of fashion.

[daily randy]

04:56 PM on 04/30/2012

Someone needs to find out where Daniela Todescu lives, call the police, and have her placed in a mental health facility ... where she will be kept from killing those around her. What is she even babbling on about? Yikes. Out of a sense of morbid curiosity, I tried to dissect her statements to make sense of them. But they make no sense. It's rather frightening.

[Enso]

10:55 AM on 05/01/2012

Lol!

[Meldy1]

02:02 AM on 04/30/2012

These Stalinisque old men in Russia were threatened by an intelligent,generous ,beautiful woman!in this 21st century.They use to command women....it was all politically motivated.We are organizing a Free Julia Committee....

[Enso]

01:00 AM on 05/01/2012

You obviously don't know the difference between Russia and Ukraine.
Consider educating yourself before posting in the future.

[Meldy1]

04:24 AM on 05/01/2012

But Russia still calls the shots when it comes to Ukrainian judicial process.Nothing have changed in Ukraine,it was a slight divorce from Russia,but Russia has it's fingers on everything in Ukraine...Go and educate yourself,greetings from Monaco.

[Highball]

11:59 PM on 04/29/2012

She's really been screwed over, and it's so obvious that it's painful. If this wasn't politically motivated, then nothing ever was.

And no, before you ask, I'm not saying this just because she's a beautiful woman.

[Scott-Michael Anderson]

11:50 PM on 04/29/2012

This woman is being used as a patsy in the struggle between an independent Ukraine and a petulant and greedy Russia who covets her. The UN and the Court of Human Rights should intervene and assist her release.

[Enso]

10:44 AM on 05/01/2012

Russia "covets" Tymoshenko?! LAMO!!
You probably talking about yourself.

[Scott-Michael Anderson]

07:18 PM on 05/12/2012

Covets "Her" meaning the Ukraine, silly! :P

[Ligero1]

07:39 PM on 04/29/2012

Very many STUPID comments here, obviously by non Ukrainians. If any of you had any idea of the history of the Ukraine...but that would require intelligence, something obviously lacking in most of you. The Ukraine is a country that has finally achieved freedom since the fall of the Soviet Union, and that really pisses off Russia, as it has for hundreds of years. The problem in the Ukraine today is that it is full of Russians who want to go back to being a Russian satellite. Yulia is being scapegoated by the Russians in the Ukraine, plain and simple.

[Highball]

11:59 PM on 04/29/2012

That pretty much sums it up, from everything I've read, yeah.

[brainthrust]

12:12 AM on 04/30/2012

Thanks for your perspective. This was a big story in all of the European newspapers but I couldn't get an accurate translation. A lot of the former Soviet Union countries are having similar problems as you describe, with ethnic Russians being at odds with the locals who wish to show greater independence from Russia and to embrace the West. What is your take on the tax charges?

[GreeseMonkey]

10:31 AM on 04/28/2012

All east european tax evaders claim political persecution. Timoshenko is just one on the list of many like Khodorkhovski and Berezovski. She should pay taxes when she should. Good riddance.

[AfisF]

03:02 AM on 04/29/2012

Totally agree with you on this one. Everytime a rich/powerful person is accused of a crime (usually economic in nature) in that part of the world, the first tactic is to claim 'it's political' and then get your people to make sure the Western media covers it extensively. Almost sounds like there are no corruput officials, thieves, rapists or murderers in Eastern Europe, only political prisoners.

[Scent]

02:24 AM on 04/28/2012

A rich person on trial for evading taxes anywhere in the world but northern Europe has nothing to do with crimes but with the ones making money from ruining this planet to want someone out of the way.

[Dimitry Podkolzin]

03:57 PM on 04/27/2012

And the United States government supports current Ukrainian regime. As is the case with many other corrupt governments.

[Ligero1]

07:41 PM on 04/29/2012

Sorry, Russian Dimitry, Ukraine should belong to Ukrainians, not Russians. There will be no peace there until all the Russians go back to Mother Russia. They love Putin so much; he will welcome all of you back!

[Dimitry Podkolzin]

11:56 PM on 05/27/2012

I am an American. I actually cannot understand how anyone would support the current Ukrainian president. He sets his priorities for unimportant things that have nothing to do with the well-being of the country. At least a half of your population speaks and reads Russian and yet every show is in Ukrainian. When he goes visiting a town they have to paste the Russian names on storefronts over with Ukrainian ones. When he leaves, they take them down. It was funny to watch Youtube clips where a newscaster would screw up the Ukrainian line and start swearing in Russian, because they know that language better. Your whole society seems synthetic. You can say whatever you like, but the fact is, I can go and look at the facts and make up my own mind, so you can keep exuding hot air all you want. You seem to be just a political poster pushing your own agenda, I know not what are your reasons, but I feel like they aren't clean and nice. Because what you say contradicts what I've seen and I don't care a hoot for Russia's foreign policy one way or another because it doesn't affect me at all. Besides I don't believe in the idea of Putin being a bad egg simply from the fact that everything the media here tells about him is bad. This for me indicates that he is not. As my own experience with the national media tells me.

[Daniela Todescu]

03:47 PM on 04/27/2012

Interesting ! the Pan Arabian movement started with the Aswan Damm get out from Great Britain and France, death of Sheikh Faisal I? The orientation toward RP China politics and buy the tanks from Czech Repulblic..In fact the Russia nuclear power where first tested in Russia by Pierre and Marie Curie the explosion have had brocken windows of Edinburg in Scotland! Pierre Curie died then? and Nobel Price Dynamite and Nobel prices..but is strange the world hardest yoke ever! with 2 world wars and preparing the 3rd! Black Brain Trust Socialists shake hands ad cutting corners builders of the Olympic Towers in New Yok Onassis and as the president killed the wife got by oil leader Onassis and no taxes payed to the USA! The red district rules and Vatican tax free get all and give nothing back! Oleg Cassini was the styist of Jacky Onasis and the designer of the spanish cars named: MATADOR! With the Bay of Pigs and New World Order of TOLERANCY MR BUSH SR AND MR GORBATCHEV ANNOUNCED THAN WATCH OUT! THE WORLD WIDE PUTICLUB SINCE TOPKAPI MOVEMENT FROM THE TEMPLE FROM THE HEADING OF THE WORLD IN EDINBURG UNTIL the BLUE MOSKEE!

[AngryHarpy]

03:46 PM on 04/27/2012

Wow, I can't get over her hair. What an elegant way to style it.

I guess I should have more to say than that...

[totalliberal]

11:23 AM on 04/28/2012

It's a Ukrainian peasant style...............But she's hardly a peasant.

[Lechiffre]

05:26 PM on 04/28/2012

with all that surgery , ole girl sure ain't. Have a look at the picture above, the guy next to her is wearing the same glasses as Yulia , is he her hubbie ?

[chicgogo]

05:49 PM on 04/28/2012

I thought she looked like the Ukrainian Sarah Palin. Can she see Alaska from her front porch?

[Ligero1]

07:43 PM on 04/29/2012

I guess you that you would get many laughs from that comment. Unfortunately it only showed how stupid you are.