The recent freeing of imprisoned Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister and leader of the EPP party, is a possible game changing wildcard in the current Ukraine dilemma. Tymoshenko has often found common ground with Yanukovych while demonstrating the ability to deal with Putin to ease the implementation of a Ukraine-EU deal: Allen L Roland
What's needed now in Ukraine is the presence of a
respected political figure who can deal with all internal political factions
and keep the outside players, Moscow, Washington, and Brussels, effectively
at bay.
Former
Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and the leader of EPP member party
Batkivshchyna, is that wildcard political figure who has re-emerged after
nearly three years of unjust and politically motivated imprisonment by the
Yanukovich regime ~ which is desperately in need of a face saving end game (
think Mandela and South Africa ).
The
EPP is the largest and most influential European-level political party of the
centre-right, which currently includes 73 member-parties from 39 countries, the
Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, 12 EU and 5
non-EU heads of state and government, 13 members of the European Commission and
the largest Group in the European Parliament.
As Reuters reported today ~ " Yanukovich, who enraged much of the population by
turning away from the European Union to cultivate closer relations with Russia
three months ago, made sweeping concessions in a deal brokered by European
diplomats on Friday after days of pitched fighting in Kiev, with police snipers
gunning down protesters. But the deal, which called for early elections by
the end of the year, was not enough to satisfy demonstrators, who want
Yanukovich out immediately in the wake of the bloodletting. Parliament has
quickly acted to implement the deal, voting to restore a constitution that
curbs the president's powers and to change the legal code to allow
Tymoshenko to go free. On Saturday, lawmakers voted to speed her release by
eliminating a requirement that the president approve it. The speaker of parliament,
a Yanukovich loyalist, resigned and parliament elected Oleksander Turchynov,
a close ally of Tymoshenko, as his replacement." Read full report ~ http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/355-europe/22205-ukraine-protesters-seize-yanukovichs-compound-in-kiev
The
release of Tymoshenko would transform Ukraine by giving the opposition a single
leader and potential future president, although others also have claims ~ but
none as credible or powerful as Tymoshenko.
As
Reuters reports ~ She was jailed by
a court under Yanukovich over a natural gas deal with Russia she arranged while
serving as premier. The European Union had long considered her a political
prisoner, and her freedom was one of the main demands it had for closer ties
with Ukraine during years of negotiations that ended when Yanukovich abruptly
turned towards Moscow in November.
"According
to Ukrainian law my mum is already a free person," daughter
Eugenia Tymoshenko told reporters, saying she was on her way to meet her mother
in Kharkiv where she has been held in hospital under treatment for back pain.
Eugenia Tymoshenko spoke to the press about
the expected release of her mother on February 22, after parliament voted to
free her. “We need to take her out,” said Eugenia. “The
parliament have [passed] a vote of no confidence against the general
prosecutor, and this means that he is half-legitimate… definitely, the
democratic forces have won today.” Credit: YouTube/Katya
Gorchinskaya http://sg.news.yahoo.com/video/tymoshenkos-daughter-comments-release-jailed-125246399.html
Obviously,
the Ukraine wildcard is Yulia Tymoshenko and her rapid emergence from politial
obscurity into political relevance will become obvious in the days ahead.
Allen
L Roland
Freelance
Alternative Press Online columnist and
transformational counselor Allen L Roland is available for comments,
interviews, speaking engagements and private
Skype consultations allen@allenroland.com
Allen
L Roland is also a lecturer who also shares a daily
political and social commentary on his web log and
website allenroland.com He also
guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
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