Reaction to Tymoshenko verdict swift and harsh

EU ‘deeply disappointed’

“The EU is deeply disappointed with the verdict of the Pechersk District Court in Ukraine in the case of Ms Yulia Tymoshenko. The verdict comes after a trial which did not respect the international standards as regards fair, transparent and independent legal process, which I repeatedly called for in my previous statements,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

A member of the European Parliament, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, has said that Ukraine does notdeserve EU membership prospects.

“You betrayed your friends in the European Union. You don’t need the prospect of membership in any documents. You don’t deserve membership prospects,” Wolski said, while addressing Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Gryschenko in Brussels on Tuesday. “The Ukrainian leadership has values other than European ones.”

Some of the members of the European Parliament, including Wolski, have stated that a visit by Yanukovych to Brussels on Oct. 20 should be cancelled.

Putin: Verdict ‘dangerous and counterproductive’

“It is dangerous and counterproductive to cast the entire package of agreements into doubt,” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told reporters while on a visit to Beijing. “I don’t really understand why they handed her seven years.”

Russia saw the verdict as an attempt by the Yanukovych administration to renege on the fateful 2009 gas deal that Tymoshenko negotiated as prime minister. “We cannot ignore an obvious anti-Russian underlying message in this whole story. In fact, Tymoshenko has been tried for legally binding agreements between Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy, which remain in effect and which nobody has invalidated," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Viktor Mironenko, the head of the Center of Ukrainian Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Europe, said the conviction will block Ukraine’s integration with the West, forcing its leaders to turn East – and becoming more accepting of joining a Russia-led customs union.

“Undoubtedly, this very ruling had to be expected. There can be no doubts that the proceedings were political. Surely, one of the goals was to remove a strong political competitor, and Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko] is a strong political fighter, and she has proven this more than once,” Mironenko said.

German reaction

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said that he was disappointed. “Today’s verdict in the case of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is a setback for Ukraine,” Westerwelle said. “This verdict cannot help but have consequences for our, and the European Union’s, relations with Ukraine."

Karl-Georg Wellmann, a lawmaker in the German Bundestag in Christian Democratic Union that German Chancellor Angela Merkel belongs to.

“The association and the free trade agreement with the EU has moved, from the point of view of Bundestag, into distant future. All signs point at the fact that the verdict was written based on political motives,” he said. “The counties of the European Union should take some measures. Along with this process we need to restore visa regime for holders of diplomatic passports.”

He said that the decision to convict Tymoshenko hit Ukraine’s investment attractiveness.

“The biggest obstacle to foreign investment in Ukraine is a judiciary that is not independent and is subject to political and commercial pressure,” Wellman added.

Ukrainians react

Member of parliament and former defense minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko said the verdict means Yanukovych has no chance of winning the presidency for a second time. “This is a verdict against Yanukovych, rather than against Tymoshenko,” Hrytsenko said. “It’s clear now that Yanukovych has no chance for a second term, regardless of whether he pardons Tymoshenko in a month or in a year. This bulldozer regime is doomed [to failure]."

Tetiana Alihnovych, 58-year-old pensioner waving a Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko flag, had been pushed by riot police. “They snatched the flag out of my hands. But I took a bottle of milk and poured it on the transparent helmet of a policeman to make him blind,” she said, adding that she brought milk for this purpose. “I hope Europe will protect Yulia just like she protected Europe in 2009, when the Europeans were freezing without gas,” Alihnovych said. “They now have to impose sanctions against the Ukrainian top officials and to arrest their foreign bank accounts.”

Tymoshenko lawyer Mykola Siry said that the verdict “will undoubtedly go down in the history of the Ukrainian legal system as a disgraceful page." Tymoshenko is planning an appeal — but to the European Court of Human Rights because there is no justice in Ukraine.

Whatever a person’s opinion, they felt compelled to express it. Tuesday’s proceedings were among of the top 10 issues discussed on Twitter, with the hash tag #Tymoshenko.

Here are links to more reaction:

Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/president/en/press/press_release/2011/2011-October/press_release-2011-October-13.html

Catherine Ashton, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/cfsp/125033.pdf

Wilfried Martens, President, European People’s Party
http://www.epp.eu/pressnew.asp?artid=1746

Guido Westerwelle, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Germany
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/DE/Infoservice/Presse/Meldungen/2011/111011-Timoschenko.html

Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden – Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/carlbildt

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poland
http://www.msz.gov.pl/index.php?document=46009

Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/jailed-former-ukraine-prime-minister-must-be-released-2011-10-11

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius A