Tweet
Calgary Sun (Alberta)
January 12, 2005 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
POLITICAL DIVA;
IRON LADY YULIA TYMOSHENKO DRIVING ORANGE REVOLUTION
BY PAUL STANWAY, CALGARY SUN
She is the Belinda Stronach of Ukrainian politics, and then some.
Blond, beautiful, wealthy, and a staunch defender of free-market
economics.
But the comparisons end there.
Yulia Tymoshenko's past is as clouded as Stronach's is untroubled.
Dubbed the "Joan of Arc of the Orange Revolution," the fiery
Tymoshenko is either loved or hated, depending on your political
outlook.
As Ukrainian politician and journalist Yuri Boldyrev recently put it:
"She doesn't do middle-of-the-road. She is an iron lady."
Even her background has become a matter for debate. Officially,
Tymoshenko was born in 1960, in the eastern industrial city of
Dnipropetrovsk, a Russian-speaking arsenal of Soviet totalitarianism
amid a sea of Ukrainian farming villages.
It was once the power base of Leonid Brezhnev, and after independence
served the same purpose for pro-Russian Ukrainian president Leonid
Kuchma.
Depending on who you talk to, Tymoshenko may have been born into
privilege or into poverty. She is either of solid Ukrainian stock, or
maybe half-Armenian.
What is not in question is that she owed her education and her rise
through the government bureaucracy to the old Communist party.
A Ph.D-level economist, by the early 1990s she was running United
Energy Systems of Ukraine, one of several monopolies set up by the
Kyiv government to import energy.
Along the way, Tymoshenko amassed a fortune that has been variously
estimated at between $4 billion and $11 billion.
According to author Matthew Brzezinski, whose 2001 book on the
economic pillage of the former Soviet empire, Casino Moscow, devotes
an entire chapter to Tymoshenko, there is evidence of kickbacks from
United Energy to the Kyiv government.
Making a vast fortune when the average Ukrainian was struggling to
make ends meet doesn't seem like a good way to endear yourself to the
masses.
And it didn't. As head of United Energy, she was reportedly protected
by an entire platoon of former Soviet special forces bodyguards.
Tymoshenko was elected to the Ukrainian parliament in 1996, but it
wasn't until 2000, as a member of Viktor Yushchenko's short-lived
administration, that the blond bombshell began to develop a
reputation as an economic reformer.
Knowing where all the bodies were buried, she stuck it to her former
colleagues in government and the monopoly industries (recovering $2
billion in "misdirected" funds), and developed a reputation as an
anti-corruption crusader.
When she was briefly arrested on charges of smuggling natural gas
(while head of United Energy), it was widely believed to be a
political move designed to discredit her.
Her husband was also arrested on charges of defrauding the state, and
there was a suspicious car accident in which she was nearly killed.
Discrediting or bumping off critics had become a trademark of
President Kuchma's increasingly unpopular regime (Yushchenko's
poisoning being the most infamous), and being a target did wonders
for Tymoshenko's street cred.
By the time of last year's disputed presidential election, it was the
fiery Tymoshenko who led street protests against the widespread vote
fraud.
Many in Ukraine's independent media credit her with being the
backbone of the revolution.
In one of the more memorable moments of that confrontation, she
placed carnations on the shields of riot police and urged them to "be
on the side of the citizens of Ukraine."
It was Tymoshenko who was subsequently allowed through police lines
to negotiate a peaceful stand-off.
As a result of all this, she has been widely tipped as Ukraine's next
prime minister, but her strident opposition to the country's vested
interests and still-powerful bureaucracy might be a problem if
Yushchenko's first priority is national unity.
And there's also the question of that colourful business history.
Whether she's for real or just for herself is, so far, anyone's
guess.
But if she's the real deal, this political diva could be the driving
force behind any pro-market, pro-Western economic reforms undertaken
by Ukraine's new government.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
January 12, 2005 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
POLITICAL DIVA;
IRON LADY YULIA TYMOSHENKO DRIVING ORANGE REVOLUTION
BY PAUL STANWAY, CALGARY SUN
She is the Belinda Stronach of Ukrainian politics, and then some.
Blond, beautiful, wealthy, and a staunch defender of free-market
economics.
But the comparisons end there.
Yulia Tymoshenko's past is as clouded as Stronach's is untroubled.
Dubbed the "Joan of Arc of the Orange Revolution," the fiery
Tymoshenko is either loved or hated, depending on your political
outlook.
As Ukrainian politician and journalist Yuri Boldyrev recently put it:
"She doesn't do middle-of-the-road. She is an iron lady."
Even her background has become a matter for debate. Officially,
Tymoshenko was born in 1960, in the eastern industrial city of
Dnipropetrovsk, a Russian-speaking arsenal of Soviet totalitarianism
amid a sea of Ukrainian farming villages.
It was once the power base of Leonid Brezhnev, and after independence
served the same purpose for pro-Russian Ukrainian president Leonid
Kuchma.
Depending on who you talk to, Tymoshenko may have been born into
privilege or into poverty. She is either of solid Ukrainian stock, or
maybe half-Armenian.
What is not in question is that she owed her education and her rise
through the government bureaucracy to the old Communist party.
A Ph.D-level economist, by the early 1990s she was running United
Energy Systems of Ukraine, one of several monopolies set up by the
Kyiv government to import energy.
Along the way, Tymoshenko amassed a fortune that has been variously
estimated at between $4 billion and $11 billion.
According to author Matthew Brzezinski, whose 2001 book on the
economic pillage of the former Soviet empire, Casino Moscow, devotes
an entire chapter to Tymoshenko, there is evidence of kickbacks from
United Energy to the Kyiv government.
Making a vast fortune when the average Ukrainian was struggling to
make ends meet doesn't seem like a good way to endear yourself to the
masses.
And it didn't. As head of United Energy, she was reportedly protected
by an entire platoon of former Soviet special forces bodyguards.
Tymoshenko was elected to the Ukrainian parliament in 1996, but it
wasn't until 2000, as a member of Viktor Yushchenko's short-lived
administration, that the blond bombshell began to develop a
reputation as an economic reformer.
Knowing where all the bodies were buried, she stuck it to her former
colleagues in government and the monopoly industries (recovering $2
billion in "misdirected" funds), and developed a reputation as an
anti-corruption crusader.
When she was briefly arrested on charges of smuggling natural gas
(while head of United Energy), it was widely believed to be a
political move designed to discredit her.
Her husband was also arrested on charges of defrauding the state, and
there was a suspicious car accident in which she was nearly killed.
Discrediting or bumping off critics had become a trademark of
President Kuchma's increasingly unpopular regime (Yushchenko's
poisoning being the most infamous), and being a target did wonders
for Tymoshenko's street cred.
By the time of last year's disputed presidential election, it was the
fiery Tymoshenko who led street protests against the widespread vote
fraud.
Many in Ukraine's independent media credit her with being the
backbone of the revolution.
In one of the more memorable moments of that confrontation, she
placed carnations on the shields of riot police and urged them to "be
on the side of the citizens of Ukraine."
It was Tymoshenko who was subsequently allowed through police lines
to negotiate a peaceful stand-off.
As a result of all this, she has been widely tipped as Ukraine's next
prime minister, but her strident opposition to the country's vested
interests and still-powerful bureaucracy might be a problem if
Yushchenko's first priority is national unity.
And there's also the question of that colourful business history.
Whether she's for real or just for herself is, so far, anyone's
guess.
But if she's the real deal, this political diva could be the driving
force behind any pro-market, pro-Western economic reforms undertaken
by Ukraine's new government.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress