20/05/2012No foreign treatment for Tymoshenko: Ukraine president
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Sunday ruled out the idea of the jailed and ailing ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko being released for treatment abroad ahead of next month’s Euro football tournament.
Germany has offered to provide medical care to the 2004 Orange Revolution leader and hinted of a possible boycott by Chancellor Angela Merkel of matches played in Ukraine once the tournament kicks off in co-hosts Poland on June 8.
Yanukovych told national television that pro-government deputies were firmly against the idea of changing the country’s laws to allow convicts receive treatment abroad.
“If they suddenly adopt this law, only imagine — thousands of convicts with money will begin corrupting the medical profession,” Tymoshenko’s arch rival told Channel One.
“They (the deputies) told me they cannot do this,” Yanukovych said.
The 51-year-old Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years in October on abuse of power charges that she claimed were a part of Yanukovych’s vendetta against her and her former government team.
EU leaders have picked up Tymoshenko’s cause and some have already vowed to skip all football-related events hosted by Ukraine.
The spat has halted Ukraine’s progress toward possible EU membership and nudged it further into Russia’s orbit amid attempts by Moscow to build closer ex-Soviet economic and military alliances.
Yanukovych said he took EU concerns over Tymoshenko seriously and rejected the idea of Kyiv’s relations with the 27-nation bloc being irreparably harmed.
“I would like to note that we have not ruined our relations with a single European country — not one,” Yanukovych said in the televised interview.
“We are obviously concerned about the tone of the high-level remarks coming from EU countries and we are ready to answer all their questions. But we reserve the right to decide when we do this,” he said.