Former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek believes former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko deserves respect, not imprisonment for successfully resolving the gas crisis in 2009, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.
"I must say that the approach taken by the Ukrainian government and specifically Yulia Tymoshenko was very brave, and if she is being threatened with something because of the contracts that she signed, then I believe this is a continuation of the internal political struggle in Ukraine. The contract that she was forced to sign with Russia protected people in Ukraine and saved Ukraine’s face before Europe. Yulia Tymoshenko was seen as a person that helped resolve the gas crisis and I don’t think she can be put on trial for something," Mirek Topolanek said in an interview with "Lidové noviny".
The former president of the European Council stressed that Yulia Tymoshenko acted very bravely by signing the gas contracts with Russia in 2009. "I, as the president of the EU Council at the time, was putting great pressure on Tymoshenko diplomatically. I had half a billion EU citizens standing behind me, major problems with Bulgaria and Slovakia, Angela Merkel, the European Commission. Yulia Tymoshenko was very brave. She had no other option than to agree with Russia. And my goal was to make sure Ukraine didn’t lose by a score of 0:10, because it was holding the short end of the rope in the conflict," he said.
Yulia Tymoshenko quoted Mirek Topolanek during debates in her trial. "I think a real participant of these processes, the then president of the European Council, who knew all the details, who knew about all the directives and contracts that were signed, wouldn`t just say something like that," she said.
