Yulia Tymoshenko

Yulia Tymoshenko Юлія Тимошенко
Prime Minister of Ukraine
In office 18 December 2007 – 4 March 2010
President	Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Yanukovych
Preceded by	Viktor Yanukovych
Succeeded by	Oleksandr Turchynov (Acting)
In office 24 January 2005 – 8 September 2005 Acting until 4 February 2005
President	Viktor Yushchenko
Preceded by	Mykola Azarov (Acting)
Succeeded by	Yuriy Yekhanurov
Deputy Prime Minister for Fuel and Energy
In office 30 December 1999 – 19 January 2000
Prime Minister	Viktor Yushchenko
Preceded by	Aleksey Sheberstov (Energy)
Succeeded by	Ivan Plachkov
Personal details
Born	(1960-11-27) 27 November 1960 Dnipropetrovsk, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
Political party	All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" (1999–present) Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (2001–present)
Other political affiliations	Hromada (Before 1999)
Spouse	Oleksandr Tymoshenko (1979–present)
Children	Yevhenia (Eugenia)
Alma mater	National Mining University of Ukraine Dnipropetrovsk National University Kiev National Economic University
Website	Official website

Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko (Template:Lang-uk, pronounced [ˈjulijɑ ʋɔlɔˈdɪmɪriʋnɑ tɪmɔˈʃɛnkɔ]), née Grigyan (Ukrainian: Ґріґян, from the Latvian surname "Grigan"), born 27 November 1960, is a Ukrainian politician. She was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 24 January to 8 September 2005, and again from 18 December 2007 to 4 March 2010. She placed third in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2005. Tymoshenko is the leader of the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" party and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.

She has been a practising economist and academic. Prior to her political career, Yulia Tymoshenko was a successful but controversial businesswoman in the gas industry, becoming by some estimates one of the richest people in the country. Before becoming Ukraine's first female Prime Minister in 2005, Tymoshenko co-led the Orange Revolution.

Tymoshenko was a candidate in the Ukrainian presidential elections of 2010, but lost this election to Viktor Yanukovych (Tymoshenko received 45.47% of the votes in the second and final round of this election). At first Tymoshenko challenged the election results, claiming the vote was rigged, but withdrew her appeal on 20 February 2010 stating “It became clear that the court is not out to establish the truth”.

Beginning in May 2010, a number of criminal cases were opened against Tymoshenko. On 11 October 2011, a Ukrainian court sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison after she was found guilty of abuse of office when brokering the 2009 gas deal with Russia. The conviction is seen as "justice being applied selectively under political motivation" by the European Union and other international organizations.

Early life and career

Yulia Tymoshenko (born Grigyan) was born 27 November 1960, in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). Her mother Ludmila Nikolaevna Telegina (née Nelepova), was born 11 August 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk. Her father Vladimir Abramovich Grigyan was born 3 December 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk and was, according to his Soviet passport, Latvian. Vladimir left the family when Yulia was three years old. Tymoshenko took the surname of her mother "Telegina" – before graduating in 1977. In 1979, Tymoshenko married Oleksandr Tymoshenko, son of a middle-level Soviet official. In 1980 their daughter Yevhenia (Eugenia) was born.

Education

Tymoshenko graduated from high school in 1977 (school № 37 in Dnipropetrovsk).

In 1978 Tymoshenko entered the mining department of "Dnipropetrovsk Mining Institute". In 1979 she transferred to the Economic Department of the Dnipropetrovsk State University and majored in cybernetic engineering. In 1984 Tymoshenko graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk State University with honors (red diploma) as an engineer-economist.

In 1999, she defended a PhD dissertation at the Kiev National Economic University.

Business career

After graduating from the Dnipropetrovsk State University in 1984 Tymoshenko worked as an engineer-economist in a "Dnipro Machine-Building Plant" in Dnipropetrovsk (factory made missiles) until 1988.

In 1988, as part of the perestroika initiatives, Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko borrowed 5000 Soviet rubles, and opened a cooperative "video rental"; perhaps with the help of Oleksander's father Gennadi Tymoshenko, who presided over (in the provincial council) a network of regional film distribution.

In 1989–1991, Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko founded and headed a Komsomol video rental company "Terminal" in Dnipropetrovsk (which grew to be quite successful), and later privatized it.

In 1991 Tymoshenko established (jointly with her husband Oleksandr, Gennadi Tymoshenko and Olexandr Gravets) "The Ukrainian Petrol Corporation", a company that provided the agriculture industry of Dnipropetrovsk with fuel from 1991 to 1995. Tymoshenko worked as a General Director. From 1995 to 1997, Tymoshenko was the president of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a privately owned middleman company that became the main importer of Russian natural gas to Ukraine in 1996. During that time she was nicknamed "gas princess" in light of accusations that she had been reselling enormous quantities of stolen gas and avoiding taxation of those deals. She was also accused of "having given Pavlo Lazarenko kickbacks in exchange for her company's stranglehold on the country's gas supplies". During this period Tymoshenko was involved in business relations (either co-operative or hostile) with many important figures of Ukraine. The list includes Pavlo Lazarenko, Viktor Pinchuk, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Rinat Akhmetov, and Leonid Kuchma who at that time was the President of Ukraine. All of these except for Akhmetov are, like Tymoshenko, originally from Dnipropetrovsk. Tymoshenko has also been closely linked to the management of the Russian corporation, Gazprom.

Tymoshenko is said to have acquired a significant fortune between 1990 and 1998. It was during this period of privatization (which historians have described as a period full of corruption and mismanagement) that she became one of the wealthiest oligarchs in Ukraine.

In January 2010 Tymoshenko stated that in Dnipropetrovsk she did not have to speak Ukrainian until she was 36.

Political career

Early career

Yulia Tymoshenko entered politics in 1996, and was elected to the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) from the Kirovohrad Oblast, winning a record 92.3% of the vote in her constituency. In Parliament she joined the faction Constitutional Centre.

Late November 1997 the General Prosecutor of Ukraine asked the Verkhovna Rada to lift Tymoshenko's parliamentary immunity on accusations she had attempted to smuggle $26,000 from Ukraine to Moscow, Russia in 1995. Late 1997 Tymoshenko called to hold the next Ukrainian Presidential elections not in 1999 but in the fall of 1998.

Tymoshenko was re-elected in 1998 as number 6 on the party list of Hromada. She was again elected winning a constituency in the Kirovohrad Oblast. Tymoshenko was a leading figure in the party, and became the Chair of the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada. After Hromada's party leader Pavlo Lazarenko fled to the United States in the spring of 1999 to avoid investigations for embezzlement various faction members left Hromada to join other parliamentary faction, among them Tymoshenko who set up the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" faction.

Deputy Prime Minister for fuel and energy

From late December 1999 to January 2001, Tymoshenko was the Deputy Prime Minister for the fuel and energy sector in the cabinet of Viktor Yushchenko. She officially left parliament on 2 March 2000. As energy Deputy Prime Minister, she virtually ended many corrupt arrangements in the energy sector. Under her stewardship, Ukraine's revenue collections from the electricity industry grew by several thousand percent. She scrapped the practice of barter in the electricity market, requiring industrial customers to pay for their electricity in cash. She also terminated exemptions for many organizations which excluded them from having their power disconnected. Her reforms meant that the government had sufficient funds to pay civil servants and increase salaries. Tymoshenko was fired by President Leonid Kuchma in January 2001 after developing a conflict with oligarchs in the industry. Soon after her dismissal, Tymoshenko took leadership of the National Salvation Committee and became active in the Ukraine without Kuchma-protests.

In mid-February 2001, Tymoshenko was arrested on charges of forging customs documents and smuggling gas between 1995 and 1997 (while president of United Energy Systems of Ukraine) but was released several weeks later. Her political supporters organized several protest rallies near the Lukyanivska Prison where she was held in custody. According to Tymoshenko, the charges were fabricated by Kuchma's regime at the behest of oligarchs threatened by her efforts to root out corruption and institute market-based reforms. In spite of being cleared of the charges, Moscow maintained an arrest warrant for Tymoshenko should she enter Russia until her dismissal as Prime Minister four years later.

In addition, Tymoshenko's husband, Oleksandr, spent two years in hiding in order to avoid incarceration on charges the couple said were unfounded and politically motivated by the former Kuchma administration.

Campaigns against Kuchma and 2002 election

Once the charges were dropped, she reassumed her place among the leaders of the grassroots campaign against President Kuchma for his alleged role in the murder of the journalist Georgiy Gongadze. In this campaign, Tymoshenko first became known as a passionate, revolutionist leader, an example of this being a TV broadcast of her smashing prison windows during one of the rallies. At the time Tymoshenko wanted to organise a national referendum to impeach President Kuchma.

Our government was doing almost an underground work under the rigorous pressure of president Kuchma and criminal-oligarchic groups. All anti-shadow and anti-corruption initiatives of the Cabinet of Ministers were being blocked, while the Government was being an object of blackmailing and different provocations. People were arrested only because their relatives were working for the Cabinet of Ministers and were carrying out real reforms that were murderous for the corrupted system of power.

Yulia Tymoshenko Nezavisimaya Gazeta interview (25 October 2001)

9 February 2001, Tymoshenko founded the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (the National Salvation Committee merged into it), a political bloc that received 7.2% of the vote in the 2002 parliamentary election. She is the head of the Batkivshchina (Fatherland) political party since the party was organised in 1999.

11 August 2001 civilian and military prosecutors in Russia opened a new criminal case against Tymoshenko accusing her of bribery. On December 27, 2005 Russian prosecutors dropped these charges. Russian prosecutors had suspended an arrest warrant when she was appointed Prime Minister in but reinstated it after she was fired in September 2005. The prosecutors suspended it again when she came to Moscow for questioning on September 25, 2005. Tymoshenko never traveled to Russia during her first seven months as Prime Minister (the first Tymoshenko Government).

In January 2002 Tymoshenko was involved in a mysterious car accident that she survived with minor injuries – an episode some believe may have been a government assassination attempt.

Orange Revolution

In the Autumn of 2001, both Tymoshenko and Viktor Yushchenko attempted to create a broad opposition bloc against the incumbent President Leonid Kuchma in order to win the Ukrainian presidential election 2004.

In late 2002, Tymoshenko, Oleksandr Moroz (Socialist Party of Ukraine), Petro Symonenko (Communist Party of Ukraine) and Viktor Yushchenko (Our Ukraine) issued a joint statement concerning "the beginning of a state revolution in Ukraine". In the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, the communist party stepped out of the alliance, but the other parties remained allies and Symonenko was against a single candidate from the alliance (until July 2006).

On 2 July 2004, Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc established the Force of the people, a coalition which aimed to stop "the destructive process that has, as a result of the incumbent authorities, become a characteristic for Ukraine", the pact included a promise by Viktor Yushchenko to nominate Tymoshenko as Prime Minister if Yushchenko would win the October 2004 presidential election. Tymoshenko campaigned for Yushchenko during the 2004 electoral campaign. The Yushchenko campaign publicly called for protest on 21 November 2004 (second round election day) when allegations of fraud began to spread. On November 22, 2004 massive protests broke out in cities across Ukraine: the largest, in Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti attracted an estimated 500,000 participants. These protests became known as the Orange Revolution. During the protests, Tymoshenko speeches on Maidan kept the momentum of the street protests going. After the cancellation of Viktor Yanukovych's official victory and a re-run of the second round of the election Viktor Yushchenko was elected President.

After the Orange Revolution

Yulia Tymoshenko in Parliament, February 4, 2005

On 24 January 2005, Tymoshenko was appointed acting Prime Minister of Ukraine under Yushchenko's presidency. On 4 February, Tymoshenko's premiership appointment was ratified by the parliament with an overwhelming majority of 373 votes (226 were required for approval). On 28 July, Forbes named her the third most powerful woman in the world, behind only Condoleezza Rice and Wu Yi. However, in the magazine's list published on 1 September 2006, Tymoshenko was not included in the top 100.

Several months into her government, internal conflicts within the post‐Revolution coalition began to damage Tymoshenko's administration. On 8 September, after the resignation of several senior officials, including the Head of the Security and Defense Council Petro Poroshenko and Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko, Yulia Tymoshenko's government was dismissed by President Viktor Yushchenko during a live television address to the nation. She was succeeded as Prime Minister by Yuriy Yehanurov. Yushchenko went on to criticize her work as head of the Cabinet, suggesting it had led to an economic slowdown and political conflicts within the ruling coalition.

2006 parliamentary election

After her dismissal Tymoshenko started to tour the country in a bid to win the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election as the leader of her Bloc. She soon announced that she wanted to return to the post of Prime Minister.

With the Bloc coming second in the election, and winning 129 seats, many speculated that she might form a coalition with Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party and the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) to prevent the Party of Regions from gaining power. Tymoshenko again reiterated her stance in regard to becoming Prime Minister. However, negotiations with Our Ukraine and SPU faced many difficulties as the various blocs scrapped over posts and engaged in counter-negotiations with other groupings.

On Wednesday 21 June 2006, the Ukrainian media reported that the parties had finally reached a coalition agreement, which appeared to have ended nearly three months of political uncertainty.

Tymoshenko's nomination and confirmation as new Prime Minister was expected to be straightforward. However, the nomination was preconditioned on an election of her long-term rival Petro Poroshenko from Our Ukraine as the speaker of the parliament. Tymoshenko stated that she would vote for any speaker from the coalition. Within a few days after the coalition agreement had been signed, it became clear that the coalition members mistrusted each other, since they considered it to be a deviation from parliamentary procedures in order to hold a simultaneous vote on Poroshenko as the speaker and Tymoshenko as Prime Minister.

The Party of Regions announced an ultimatum to the coalition, demanding that the parliamentary procedures be observed, asking membership in parliamentary committees to be allocated in proportion to seats held by each fraction, chairmanship in certain Parliamentary committees as well as Governorships in the administrative subdivisions won by the Party of Regions. The Party of Regions complained the coalition agreement deprived the Party of Regions and the communists of any representation in the executive and leadership in parliamentary committees while in the local regional councils won by the Party of Regions, the coalition parties were locked out of all committees as well.

Members from the Party of Regions blocked the parliament from Thursday, 29 June through Thursday, 6 July.

Unfortunately, a different coalition has now been created. But it won't last long – for a number of reasons. First, to unite incompatible things – Communism and doubled-dyed clans – into one team. A coalition of Communists, Socialists and mobsters won't last long because this country will sense the insincerity and the total absence of any strategic thing. I know for sure that our team won't allow Ukraine to be raped so easily.

Yulia Tymoshenko on ICTV (7 July 2006)

Following a surprise nomination of Oleksandr Moroz from the Socialist Party of Ukraine as the Rada speaker and his subsequent election late on 6 July with the support of the Party of Regions, the "Orange coalition" collapsed (Poroshenko had withdrawn his candidacy and had urged Moroz to do the same on 7 July). After the creation of a large coalition of majority, led by the former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych and composed of the Party of Regions, Socialists and Communists, Viktor Yanukovych became Prime Minister, and the other two parties were left in the wilderness. Whilst Tymoshenko immediately announced that her political force would be in opposition to the new government, Our Ukraine stalled until 4 October 2006, when it too joined the opposition. Following the 2007 Ukrainian political crisis new elections were called.

2007 Foreign Affairs article

Yulia Timoshenko and Vladimir Putin (19 March 2005); in November 2009 Putin stated he found it comfortable to work with Tymoshenko and also praised her political choices.

Tymoshenko wrote an article called "Containing Russia" in the May–June 2007 edition of the journal Foreign Affairs. In the article she sharply criticized authoritarian developments under Vladimir Putin and opposed the alleged new Russian expansionism. Consequently, the article irked Russia and more than a week after the article was published, Russia responded to the article, calling it an "anti-Russian manifesto" and "an attempt to once again draw dividing lines in Europe."

It was subsequently revealed that significant portions of the article had been paraphrased from an article written by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Tymoshenko's staff denied allegations of plagiarism on the grounds that the Foreign Affairs format does not usually include attributions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote an article called "Containing Russia: Back To The Future?" for the same journal which was apparently meant to be a response to Tymoshenko. He withdrew the article before publication, accusing the editors of changing his text and said his article was subjected to "censorship".

2007 parliamentary election

Following balloting in the 2007 parliamentary elections held on 30 September 2007, Orange Revolution parties said they had won enough votes to form a governing coalition. On 3 October 2007, an almost final tally gave the alliance of Tymoshenko and President Yushchenko a slim lead over a rival party of Prime Minister Yanukovych. Although Yanukovych, whose party won the single biggest share of the vote, also claimed victory, one of his coalition allies, the Socialist Party of Ukraine, failed to gain enough votes to retain seats in Parliament.

On 15 October 2007, Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc agreed to form a majority coalition in the new parliament of the 6th convocation. On 29 November, a coalition was signed between the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc, which was associated with President Yushchenko. Both parties are affiliated with the Orange Revolution. On 18 December, Tymoshenko was once again elected as Prime Minister, supported by 226 deputies (the minimal amount needed for passage), heading the second Tymoshenko Government.

Prime Minister 2007–2010. 2008 political crisis

The coalition of Tymoshenko's Bloc (BYuT) and Yushchenko's Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc (OU-PSD) was put at risk due to differing opinions on the ongoing 2008 South Ossetia War between Georgia and Russia. Yulia Tymoshenko disagreed with Yushchenko's condemnation of Russia and preferred to stay neutral on the issue. Yushchenko's office accused her of taking a softer position in order to gain support from Russia in the upcoming 2010 election. Andriy Kyslynskyi, the president's deputy chief of staff, went as far as to accuse her of 'high treason'. According to BYuT, Viktor Baloha (Chief of Staff of the Presidential Secretariat) criticized the premier at every turn, accusing her of everything from not being religious enough to damaging the economy and that she was plotting to kill him, and that the accusation of 'betrayal' over Georgia was simply one of the latest and most pernicious attacks directed at the premier.

President George W. Bush and Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, Kiev, 1.4.2008

After Tymoshenko's BYuT voted alongside the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Party of Regions to pass legislation that would facilitate the procedure of impeachment for future Presidents and limit the President's power while increasing the Prime Minister's powers, President Yushchenko's OU-PSD bloc pulled out of the coalition and Yushchenko promised to veto the legislation and threatened to hold an election if a new coalition was not formed soon. This resulted in the 2008 Ukrainian political crisis, which culminated in Yushchenko announcing/calling an early parliamentary election on 8 October 2008.

Tymoshenko, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev meeting on 17 January 2009 during the Russia–Ukraine gas dispute

Tymoshenko was fiercely opposed to the snap election, stating: "No politician would throw Ukraine into snap elections at this important time. But, if Yushchenko and Yanukovych – who are ideologists of snap elections – throw the country into snap elections, then they will bear responsibility for all the consequences of the global financial crisis on Ukraine". The election was initially to be held 7 December 2008, but later postponed to an unknown date. Tymoshenko had no intention of resigning until a new coalition was formed.

Early December 2008 there were negotiations between BYuT and Party of Regions to form a coalition but after Volodymyr Lytvyn was elected Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament of Ukraine) 9 December 2008 he announced the creation of a coalition between his Lytvyn Bloc, BYuT and OU-PSD. After negotiations the three parties officially signed the coalition agreement on 16 December. It was unsure if this coalition would stop the snap election although Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn predicted the Verkhovna Rada will work until 2012.

2010 Presidential election

Main article: Ukrainian presidential election, 2010

On 5 February 2009 the second Tymoshenko cabinet survived a second no-confidence vote in the Ukrainian Parliament (the first was rejected on 11 July 2008). In February 2009 the relations between Tymoshenko and President Yushchenko, the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine and the oppositional Party of Regions remained hostile. According to Tymoshenko her conflict with the President was a political competition and not ideological antagonism, and she emphasized early in February 2009 that the "election struggle for the next presidential elections has virtually begun".

After long being considered a possible candidate for the President of Ukraine in 2010, Tymoshenko announced that she would stand in the presidential elections in 2010 in a statement broadcast live on national TV on 7 June 2009, despite previous statements (in 2008) she did not intend to become president. Tymoshenko did state that if she lost the presidential elections she would not challenge their results. On 12 September 2009 a tour called "With Ukraine in Heart" in support of Tymoshenko candidacy kick-started on Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The popular Ukrainian singers and bands took part in the tour.

Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko formally endorsed Yulia Tymoshenko as their candidate for the next Presidential election, the first-round ballot was scheduled to be held on 17 January 2010. Tymoshenko candidacy was also endorsed by noticeable Ukrainian politicians such as Borys Tarasyuk, Yuriy Lutsenko, former President Leonid Kravchuk, the Christian Democratic Union, the European Party of Ukraine and Forward, Ukraine!. Analysts suggested that she was the Russian Government's preferred candidate in the election, on 3 December 2009 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied this. Putin stated he was cooperating with Tymoshenko as Prime Minister of Ukraine but he was not supporting her in elections.

As soon as Yushchenko and Yanukovych appear on the tribune, expect failure. And how can we forget the match between Ukraine and Greece, when our team lost the trip to South Africa. Why? Because two "lucky" politicians came to the deciding match and transferred their lucky aura to the entire Ukrainian team.

Yulia Tymoshenko's personal blog (7 December 2009)

Tymoshenko's campaign was expected to have cost $100 to $150 million.

Tymoshenko expected early parliamentary elections after the 2010 presidential election, but she was against this.

On 1 December 2009 Tymoshenko urged "national democratic forces" to unite after the first round of the presidential elections around the candidate who takes the largest number of votes. "If we are not able to strengthen our efforts and unite the whole national-patriotic and democratic camp of Ukraine... we will be much weaker than those who want revenge". On 5 December 2009 she declared she would go into opposition if she would lose the presidential elections, Tymoshenko also complained of flaws in the election legislation and expressed confidence of attempts to be made by her opponents to carry out vote rigging.

Yulia Tymoshenko (First round) – percentage of total national vote (25.05%)

Yulia Tymoshenko (Second round) – percentage of total national vote (45.47%)

In the first round of the presidential election on 17 January 2010, Tymoshenko took second place with 25% of the vote and Yanukovych took first place with 35%. The two proceeded to the runoff round held on 7 February 2010 in which Yanukovych was elected President of Ukraine with 48.95% of the votes, Tymoshenko received 45.4% of the votes. Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc members immediately claimed that there was systematic and large-scale vote rigging in this run-off. However Tymoshenko herself did not issue a statement about the election until a live televised broadcast on 13 February 2010 in which she said that she would challenge the election result in court. Tymoshenko alleged widespread fraud (according to Tymoshenko, a million votes were invalid) and said Yanukovych was not legitimately elected "Whatever happens in future, he will never become the legitimately elected president of Ukraine". Tymoshenko did not call people on to the streets to protest and stated she "won't tolerate civil confrontation".

On 10 February 2010 Yanukovych called on Tymoshenko to abandon her protests and resign as Prime Minister. Yanukovych stated he wanted to form a new coalition, and may try to call snap parliamentary elections. On 12 February Yanukovych stated he did not rule out talks with Tymoshenko if she would publicly apologize to him for the accusations she made during her election campaign. Tymoshenko's government did not want to resign voluntarily.

On 17 February 2010 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine, suspended the results of the election on Tymoshenko's appeal. The court suspended the Central Election Commission of Ukraine ruling that announced that Viktor Yanukovych won the election. Tymoshenko withdrew her appeal on 20 February 2010 after the Higher Administrative Court in Kiev rejected her petition to scrutinize documents from election districts in Crimea and also to question election and law-enforcement officials. According to Tymoshenko "It became clear that the court is not out to establish the truth, and, unfortunately, the court is as biased as the Central Election Commission, which includes a political majority from Yanukovych". Tymoshenko also stated "At the very least there was rigging of votes using the main methods of falsification, and I think that for history this lawsuit with all the documentation will remain in the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine, and sooner or later, an honest prosecutor's office and an honest court will assess that Yanukovych wasn't elected President of Ukraine, and that the will of the people had been rigged". The same day (20 February) Tymoshenko announced that she would not challenge the results of the second round of the presidential election in the Supreme Court of Ukraine since she believed there were no legal provisions for such an appeal.

Yanukovych presidency

The falsifications decided the elections, not you. Like millions of Ukrainians, I assert that Yanukovych is not our president.

PM Tymoshenko televised speech (22 February 2010)

During a nationally televised address on 22 February Tymoshenko said of President-elect of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and "Yanukovych's team" (she referred to them in the speech as "The oligarchy"): "They need cheap labor, poor and disenfranchised people who can be forced to work at their factories for peanuts, they also need Ukraine's riches, which they have been stealing for the last 18 years." During the speech she also accused outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko of "opening the door to massive and flagrant election rigging" days before the 7 February runoff of the January 2010 presidential election by amending the election law. During a Cabinet of Ministers meeting on 24 February Tymoshenko stated "The moment of truth has arrived: The decision whether or not to side with Yanukovych will show who values the preservation of Ukraine's independence and self-identity and who does not". Tymoshenko and her party, Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko, banned the inauguration ceremony of President Yanukovych (on 25 February 2010).

Tymoshenko meeting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (Kiev, 2 July 2010)

If the Second Tymoshenko Government could not be preserved Tymoshenko stated on 22 February 2010 she would go into Parliamentary opposition. On 3 March 2010 the Ukrainian Parliament passed a motion of no confidence in the second Tymoshenko Government in which the cabinet was dismissed with 243 lawmakers voting in favour out of the 450 (including seven lawmakers of Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko). On 1 March 2010 Prime Minister Tymoshenko had demanded this vote herself. On 2 March 2010 the coalition had already lost the parliamentary majority. Before the vote on 3 March Prime Minister Tymoshenko again stated "If the dismissal of the government is passed today, at that very same moment our government will leave the cabinet. Our political force will cross into the opposition". Tymoshenko blamed the Lytvyn Bloc and "Our Ukraine, including the leader of Our Ukraine who announced the position of the faction" for the fall of the cabinet. Tymoshenko resigned from the Prime Minister post on 4 March 2010. Fellow BYuT member Oleksandr Turchynov was empowered to fulfill the Prime Minister's duties until a new government was formed on 4 March 2010. On 9 and 15 March 2010 Tymoshenko called on "all of the national patriotic forces" to unite against Yanukovych. On 10 March 2010 Viktor Yushchenko warned that her leadership of that opposition would end in disaster "Every political force that united with Tymoshenko ended badly". On 16 March a shadow government including BYuT was established. On 10 May 2010 the People's Committee to Protect Ukraine was established of which Tymoshenko is one of the representatives. Tymoshenko was against the 2010 Ukrainian–Russian Naval Base for Natural Gas treaty, she believes the agreements harm Ukraine’s national interests.

Ukraine's prosecutor's office re-opened on 12 May 2010 a 2004 criminal case against Tymoshenko on accusations she had tried to bribe Supreme Court judges. The prosecutor's main investigation section said Tymoshenko had been called in on 12 May 2010 and formally told that the case, which had been prematurely closed by the Supreme Court of Ukraine in January 2005 without a proper investigation, had been re-opened. As she left the prosecutor's office on 12 May, Tymoshenko told journalists she had been summoned to see investigators again on 17 May and she linked the move to Russian President Medvedev's visit to Ukraine on 17–18 May 2010. Tymoshenko also claimed that she was told by "all the offices of the Prosecutor General's Office" that President Yanukovych had personally instructed the Prosecutor General's Office to find any grounds to prosecute her. In a press conference 12 May, President Yanukovych’s representative in the Verkhovna Rada Yury Miroshnychenko dismissed Tymoshenko’s statement about Yanukovych’s personal interest in prosecuting her, Yanukovych is against political repression for criticism of the regime, Miroshnychenko stated.

On 15 December 2010 the General Prosecutor's Office instituted a criminal case against Tymoshenko, alleging that she misused funds received by Ukraine within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. She was officially charged on 20 December 2010. Tymoshenko denied the money had been spent on pensions and insisted it was still at the disposal of the environment ministry and called the investigation against her a witch-hunt. Tymoshenko was not arrested, but ordered not to leave Kiev while the inquiry was under way. In the same case the environment minister in the second Tymoshenko Government, Georgiy Filipchuk, was detained. Filipchuk was the third minister from this government to face criminal charges since its fall in March 2010 (prosecutors charged former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko with abuse of office early December 2010 and former economy minister Bohdan Danylyshyn was detained in the Czech Republic in October 2010 on similar charges). Lawmakers of BYuT blocked the rostrum and presidium of the Verkhovna Rada the next day in protest against this. The same day the European People's Party issued a statement in which it "condemns the growth of aggressive, politically motivated pressure by the Ukrainian authorities on the opposition and its leader Yulia Tymoshenko". Tymoshenko dismissed the probe as "terror against the opposition by President Yanukovych". Earlier that month Ukraine's Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka had stated that there were no political reasons for the interrogations of the opposition leaders Tymoshenko, Lutsenko and Oleksandr Turchynov. According to government officials the criminal case against Tymoshenko was a legitimate attempt to uncover corruption by the previous administration. New corruption charges against Tymoshenko where filed in on 27 January 2011. She was accused of using 1,000 medical vehicles for campaigning in the presidential elections of 2010. According to Tymoshenko the charges were false and part of "Yanukovych's campaign to silence the opposition". A third criminal case against Tymoshenko in connection with alleged abuse of power during the 2009 Russia–Ukraine gas dispute was opened on 10 April 2011. This case was labelled "absurd" by Tymoshenko. On 24 May 2011 prosecutors charged her in connection with this (third criminal) case. She was not arrested.

On 26 April 2011 Tymoshenko sued businessman Dmytro Firtash and Swiss-based RosUkrEnergo in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan accusing them of "defrauding Ukraine's citizenry by manipulating an arbitration court ruling, "undermining the rule of law in Ukraine" in connection with an 2010 international arbitration court ruling in Stockholm that ordered Ukraine's state energy company Naftogaz to pay RosUkrEnergo 11 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to compensate for fuel it had "expropriated" plus 1.1 billion bcm as a penalty.

Throughout Yanukovych's presidency Tymoshenko stayed very critical about his and the Azarov Government performance and intentions which, among others, she accused of selling out to Russia and of being a "funeral of democracy". Tymoshenko has accused "many of Ukraine’s neighbors" of turning a blind eye to "Yanukovych’s strangulation of Ukraine’s democracy, some openly celebrate the supposed “stability” that his regime has imposed". She believes "Ukraine can return to a democratic path of development only with an active civil society and support from the international community".

2011 trial and imprisonment

Tymoshenko and Chancellor Angela Merkel at a March 2011 European People's Party summit in Brussels; General Prosecutor of Ukraine’s Office lifted the travel ban imposed on Tymoshenko after being officially invited to this event by U.S. Senator John McCain and European People’s Party President Wilfried Martens

Beginning in May 2010, a number of criminal cases were opened against Tymoshenko. Also a number of criminal cases were opened against officials from the second Tymoshenko Government. According to Ukrainian officials those cases were indiscriminately made to fight corruption in Ukraine.

Tymoshenko's trial (she was charged in May 2011) over abuse of office over a natural gas imports contract signed with Russia in January 2009 started on 24 June 2011.

Early July 2011 Ukrainian security service opened a new criminal investigation into alleged non-delivery by United Energy Systems of Ukraine (in 1996) of goods to Russia for $405.5 million, therefore, they say, may be Russia's claims to the State budget of Ukraine (this criminal case was closed in Russia in December 2005 years by reason of lapse of time).

On 5 August 2011 Tymoshenko was arrested for 'ridiculing court proceedings'. In jail Tymoshenko was reported to develop a "mysterious ailment". According to Ombudsman Nina Karpachova she was suffering from throat problems and had a fever. Tymoshenko is being held at Lukyanivska Prison.

On 11 October 2011, the court found Tymoshenko guilty of abuse of power, sentenced her to seven years in jail, and ordered to pay the state $188 million. She was convicted for exceeding her powers as Prime Minister, by ordering Naftogaz to sign the gas deal with Russia in 2009. The judge also banned her from seeking elected office for her period of imprisonment (disqualifying her from participation in the 2012 parliamentary and 2015 presidential elections). Authorities had deployed hundreds of police officers near the court, which was picketed by about 2,000 Tymoshenko supporters. Some minor clashes broke out and some arrests were made after the verdict was announced. Tymoshenko can appeal against the sentence; which she compared to Stalin's Great Terror. Tymoshenko and her followers saw the trial as political payback by President Viktor Yanukovych, and his Party of Regions. Both have denied this. President Yanukovych and other Government officials have hinted that the law that convicted Tymoshenko could be changed in her benefit. According to opposition politicians, this could be done as soon as one week after Tymoshenko's conviction.

Foreign reactions

In August 2011 United States and European Union officials called the persecution of Tymoshenko "selective prosecution of political opponents". According to Russia the 2009 natural gas agreements "were signed on the basis of the necessary instructions from the Russian and Ukrainian Presidents", it also did urge Ukraine to ensure an impartial trial. After the verdict in the 2009 natural gas deal European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton stated the verdict showed justice in Ukraine was being applied selectively in politically motivated prosecutions and that the Ukrainian Government handling of the case risked deep implications for its hopes of EU integration. Other reactions from European Union politicians had a similar tone.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stated the ruling had an "obvious anti-Russian subtext" and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin commented about the ruling "I can't quite understand why she got those seven years". A statement by the White House stated the charges and conduct of the trial has raised serious concerns about Ukraine's commitment to democracy and the rule of law and urged Ukraine to release Tymoshenko, as well as other political leaders and former government officials. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concerns over the conviction. The Council of Europe expressed "serious concern about the trial" and Amnesty International called for Tymoshenko's immediate release.

Political positions

See also: Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc

Tymoshenko wants her country to become a member of the EU, while she is also concerned about antagonizing Russia. "I try to defend our interests so that we can find a balance in our relations both with the EU and Russia". Tymoshenko supports Ukraine joining NATO stating it would be "uncomfortable" for Ukraine to remain "in a void, outside all existing security systems". But, according to Tymoshenko, the question of Ukraine's joining any system of collective security would "be resolved only by referendum." Tymoshenko is in favour of close relations with the EU, including the creation of a free trade area between Ukraine and EU and later a full membership, preferably in 2015. According to Tymoshenko: "The European project has not been completed as yet. It has not been completed because there is no full-fledged participation of Ukraine." She is against foreign intervention in internal Ukrainian affairs: "Ukraine's realization of its sovereign rights, forming a modern political nation, cannot be considered as a policy aimed against anyone". Tymoshenko does not want to expand the lease contract of the Russian Black Sea fleet in Ukraine because "The Constitution of Ukraine quite clearly stipulates that foreign military bases cannot be deployed in Ukraine, and this constitutional clause is the fundamental basis of the state's security".

From the bottom of my heart I congratulate everyone on the Day of Unity of Ukraine, wish well and happiness. And the most important, belief in our wonderful Fatherland!

Ukraine is strong!

PM Tymoshenko on the Day of Unity of Ukraine (22 January 2009)

According to Tymoshenko, Ukraine is a "unitary and indivisible state". Tymoshenko considers separatist attitudes in Ukraine unacceptable; "Love one another, from Donetsk, Crimea, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kiev and all the other corners of our native land". According to Tymoshenko, citizens in the Russian-speaking Dnipropetrovsk already understood Ukrainian in Soviet times and that problem surrounding the Russian language in Ukraine were being "exaggerated and don't exist”.

Tymoshenko opposes the introduction of Russian as a second official state language, and she does not believe the rights of Russian speakers are violated in current Ukraine. About her own attitude towards Ukrainian, Tymoshenko has stated "that today I am thinking and living for Ukrainian... and the fact that I know Russian very well, I think it is not a secret for you... you all know that I was brought up in the Russian speaking region in Dnipropetrovsk, to my mind, I spared no effort to speak Ukrainian as soon as possible as I came in the Government".

The first Tymoshenko Government planned to renationalise 3,000 firms but the cabinet was sacked before those plans could materialise. Tymoshenko believes that Ukraine's economy is excessively monopolized. Some Ukrainian politicians and academics have described her politically as a state socialist. Tymoshenko is against privatization of the gas transportation system in Ukraine. Tymoshenko lists the recovery of the economy of Ukraine during the 2008–2009 Ukrainian financial crisis as one of her achievements. The second Tymoshenko government has spent 1.6 billion hryvnya on updating coal mines.

Tymoshenko wants to increase a rise in the general level of social standards by equalizing salaries in the industrial and social spheres and pledged in November 2009 to revamp Ukraine's hospitals and health system within two years and tax breaks for farmers. Other economic policies included compensation for depositors who lost Soviet-era savings, price controls on food and medicines to bring inflation down, calls for a review of murky privatisations and high social spending. Tymoshenko wants to cut the number of taxes by a third, simplifying the system, and wants to cut Value Added Tax (VAT) and offer tax breaks to importers of new technologies as well as poor regions to boost investment. In December 2009, the second Tymoshenko Government proposed creating independent anti-corruption bureaus in Ukraine.

Tymoshenko believes Ukraine could gain energy security through the development and construction of more nuclear power stations and she wants to speed up exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas on the Black Sea shelf.

Tymoshenko is for the cancellation of Verkhovna Rada deputies' immunity from prosecution. For Ukraine Tymoshenko prefers the proportional representation voting system with open lists. Tymoshenko wants to reform the forming of state executive bodies and favours giving parliamentary opposition "real instruments of influence on the authorities", wants Ukrainian court system reforms and wants to re-transfer executive power to local authorities. Tymoshenko want Ukrainians "to live in a dictatorship of the constitution and the law". In the summer of 2009, Tymoshenko claimed she tried to bring together different political parties in order to amend the constitution and switch to a parliamentary form of government.

In November 2009, Tymoshenko called Ukraine "an absolutely ungovernable country" due to the changes to the Constitution of Ukraine as a part of a political compromise between the acting authorities (former-President Kuchma) and opposition during the Orange Revolution (Tymoshenko has argued those reform were "incomplete" and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc voted against them in December 2004). In January 2010, Tymoshenko called for urgent amendments to the Constitution via the majority of the Verkhovna Rada after a survey or plebiscite is conducted. In April 2011 she still believed the constitution "didn't work".

In December 2010, Tymoshenko stated she might run for President in 2015; but that this also depended on her family.

In February 2011, Tymoshenko stated "Viktor Yanukovych’s naked attempt to hijack the election that precipitated the Orange Revolution should have resulted in his being banned from running in future elections". She also believes "building a genuine civil society" is the best way to help democracy.

Genealogy, family and personal life

Main article: Family of Yulia Tymoshenko

Yulia Tymoshenko (born Grigyan; from the Latvian surname "Grigan") was born 27 November 1960, in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. Her mother's name is Ludmila Nikolaevna Telegina. Her father is Vladimir Abramovich Grigyan; his father is allegedly Jewish.

In the Ukrainian media there has been a lot of speculation regarding the genealogy of Tymoshenko. Some of the hypotheses have no scientific evidence (for example, the hypothesis of the Armenian origin of the Latvian surname "Grigan"); some of the hypotheses (concerning her possible Jewish roots) are seen as provocative, or could be designed to create negative PR.

About her ethnicity, Yulia Tymoshenko herself has said: "On my father’s side – everyone is Latvian for ten generations, and on my mother's side – everyone is Ukrainian for ten generations." Tymoshenko's parents were both born in Ukraine and are, therefore, Ukrainian as defined by the Law on Citizenship of Ukraine and by the Ukrainian Constitution.

Family

• Father – Vladimir Grigyan (born 3 December 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk)
• Mother – Lyudmila Telegina (born 11 August 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk).
• Husband – Oleksandr Tymoshenko (born 11 June 1960) – businessman, married Yulia Telegina in 1979. Father of Olexander and Gennadi Tymoshenko.
• Daughter – Yevhenia (Eugenia) Carr (née Tymoshenko) (born 20 February 1980) – a graduate of the London School of Economics (in politics and philosophy).
• Son-in-law – Sean Carr (born 10 August 1968) – English rock musician (leader of the British band "Death Valley Screamers"), owner of several stores in the UK.

Personal life

Tymoshenko and her husband rent a house in Kiev (the house belongs to relatives) and own a house in Dnipropetrovsk. Tymoshenko has declared she never used and will never use or move into a state-owned summer house, in contrast all former-Presidents of Ukraine are all living in state-owned dachas in Koncha-Zaspa. According to Ukrainian media Tymoshenko lives in a estate in Koncha-Zaspa (estimated worth: $5 million), "rented from a friend for free".

Tymoshenko has publicly stated that, like most Soviet citizens, she spoke only Russian in her childhood (although Tymoshenko was studying the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian literature at the school for 10 years, as all schoolchildren in Ukraine); Tymoshenko was to speak Ukrainian in public when she became a member of the government of Viktor Yushchenko in 2000. According to Tymoshenko her braids are a family tradition.

In her spare time Tymoshenko runs on a treadmill for exercise and listens to the music of Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Anna Netrebko and Alessandro Safina. Ukrayinska Pravda is her favourite news source. Tymoshenko has stated she has watched the Tunisian Revolution and Egyptian Revolution of 2011 "with joy and admiration".

Cultural and political image

Tymoshenko without her hallmark hair braids

Tymoshenko is a voluble public performer. Her fiery rhetoric made her an icon of the Orange Revolution.

Tymoshenko's critics have suggested that, as an oligarch, she gained her fortune improperly. Some have speculated that her familiarity with the illegal conduct of business common in Ukraine uniquely qualifies her to combat corruption—if she is willing to do so. Her former business partner, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, was convicted in the United States on charges of money laundering, corruption and fraud, the magnitude of which was in the billions of dollars.

Her transition from oligarch to reformer was believed by many voters to be both genuine and effective. Discrepancies between her declared income and her (viewed as luxurious) lifestyle have been pointed out in the Ukrainian media.

When Tymoshenko joined the Yushchenko Government she didn’t speak Ukrainian. According to fellow Ukrainian politician Borys Tarasyuk in 2002 Tymoshenko "only spoke Russian even when I spoke to her in Ukrainian", but since then she has made the transition to speaking only Ukrainian.

During her second stint as Prime-Minister her ratings at opinion polls fell. Early 2008 at public opinion polls for the Ukrainian presidential election, 2009 she stood at a 30% rate but late-April 2009 that had shrunk to 15% According to a poll carried out between January 29 and February 5, 2009 by the Kiev International Institute for Sociology just over 43% of the Ukrainian voters believed Tymoshenko should leave her post, whereas just over 45% believed she should stay. According to an opinion poll carried out between February 3 and February 12, 2009 by the "Sofia" Center for Social Studies some 59.1% of those polled believed that the activities of (then) Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko where aimed at the defense of her own interests and that of her entourage, some 4.2% said her activities where aimed at the defense of interests of foreign states and some 23.9% believed that Tymoshenko worked for the sake of national interests. 77.7% of the respondents where unsatisfied with the economic policy of the second Tymoshenko Government. Some 71.8% believed that this government was not able to lead the Ukrainian economy out of the 2008–2009 Ukrainian financial crisis or even change the situation in Ukraine to better; 18.1% of respondents did think the that the government could do that.

Tymoshenko has been ranked three times by Forbes magazine among the most powerful women in the world. During her first term, in 2005 she was ranked third (behind only Condoleezza Rice and Wu Yi), in 2008 she was ranked at number 17 and in 2009 at number 47. According to the Ukrainian magazine Focus Lady Yu was placed first in annual ranking of the most influential women in Ukraine in 2006–2010 (five years). During the Orange Revolution some Western media publications dubbed her the "Joan of Arc of the Revolution". Tymoshenko was also dubbed one of the most beautiful women ever to enter politics by Daily Mail and 20 Minutos in 2009.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has stated (in November 2009) he found it comfortable to work with his (then) Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko and also praised her for strengthening Ukrainian sovereignty and building stable ties with Moscow and called the second Tymoshenko Government "efficient and a force for stability". It has been suggested by Reuters that the Russian government, after seeing her opposition to Viktor Yushchenko, supported her since late 2008.

Former ally and President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko stated in November 2009 "I am sure that every week, spent by Yulia Tymoshenko at the post of Prime Minister, leads the country to a catastrophe. Because of Yulia Tymoshenko – it is a crisis, crisis in everything". Yushchenko has repeatedly accused his former ally turned rival Tymoshenko of acting in the interests of Russia, she firmly denied the allegations. On 31 May 2010 Yushchenko stated that Tymoshenko was his "worst mistake", "The most serious mistake was to give the power to her twice”. Former Ukrainian Minister of Finance of Ukraine Viktor Pynzenyk has called Tymoshenko's decisions “normally guided by ‘adventurous populism,’” which she saw as a tool to “consolidate power in her own hands” and believed Tymoshenko should have "taken advantage of the opportunity presented by the 2008–2009 Ukrainian financial crisis to reform”.

Party of Regions Deputy Head Borys Kolesnykov stated on February 11, 2010 "Tymoshenko was the most effective politician during the entire period of Ukraine's recent history". Former European High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana has called Tymoshenko "a patriot regardless of the position in which you have found yourself". President Viktor Yanukovych stated about Tymoshenko on May 13, 2010 "She likes to create a sensation. We have grown used to this extravagant woman".

Vitaly Chepinoha has closely collaborated with Tymoshenko during various elections for more than a decade.

In some press-media Tymoshenko is sometimes referred to as Lady Yu (Ледi Ю, Леди Ю).

Multimedia about Yulia Tymoshenko

• 2004 – 29 November, Tymoshenko's speech in Donetsk on Akhmetov's Channel "Ukraine" – during the Orange Revolution (Timoshenko in the orange shirt of Donetsk team "Shakhtar").
• 2007 – campaign videos about "Ivan, Galia, and the Vampire-Yanukovich" in support of BYuT; the parliamentary elections-2007.
• 2009 – a documentary film "Julia" (studio «Coppola Productions») in support of Yulia Tymoshenko on "Presidential Election-2010".
• 2009 – concert at the "Independence Square"-Maydan (Kiev) in honor of Yulia Tymoshenko's nomination as a candidate for the presidency; the song "Yulia, Yulia, Ukraine" (Nastya Kamenskih; and "Potap"); 29 October 2009.
• 2009 – "The Red Heart", a clip of Yulia Timoshenko's presidential election-2010; 2 December 2009.
• 2010 – clip of the opposition on "the first year of the Yanukovych's reign."

Further reading

• BBC News (4 March 2010). "Profile: Yulia Tymoshenko". (article is updated on an occasional basis)
• Aslund/McFaul, Anders/Michael A. (2006). Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine's Democratic Breakthrough. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ISBN 0870032216.
• The Report: Emerging Ukraine 2007, Oxford Business Group, 2007, ISBN 978-1-902339-68-9

External links

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• Official website
• Audio & Video about Yulia Tymoshenko avi, mp3
• Tymoshenko photo archive 2000–2009
• Tymoshenko's opinion commentaries at Project Syndicate.
• Prime Minister at Government Portal
• Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc website Template:En icon
• Korrespondent.net profile
• Time magazine profile
• Ukraine PM makes Elle front cover (19 April 2005, BBC News)
• BBC Audio & Video about Yulia Tymoshenko including an audio interview with Yulia Tymoshenko from 15 April 2005
• Yulia Tymoshenko approval rating (2001–2010, by Razumkov Centre think-tank)