Russia Still Stalinist/Yushchenko Poisoning

Britain's Telegraph newspaper has two stories on Ukraine:

A report by Rober Gedye in Kyiv discusses the threats and intimidation directed from Moscow against Ukraine's Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko - the icon of the Orange Revolution - who is being made the subject of a "fraud investigation" in Russia:

Betraying contempt for Russia's political establishment, she described the refusal of its prosecutor-general to drop fraud charges against her as an "ineffective attempt to break unwanted politicians".

Mrs Timoshenko, 44, whose reformist zeal and distinctive braids won her heroine status alongside the presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko when they swept away the old order late last year, cancelled an official visit to Russia two months ago. She had been told that a warrant against her on fraud charges remained in force, and said yesterday that Russia was living in the past if it thought such methods would achieve results.

"Some Russian politicians still pursue out-dated Stalinist methods. But they do not understand that times have changed," she said.

"This is no longer an effective way to break people. Russia has to come to terms with the fact that Ukraine is a strong and independent country with strong, independent politicians."

Another report by Gedye focuses on the search for those responsible for the poisoning of Ukraine's president Viktor Yushchenko:

Ukraine's authorities know who was behind the attempt to poison President Viktor Yushchenko and have traced the substance used in the plot to a laboratory for banned chemical weapons, it emerged yesterday.

The former Soviet state's security services had also deployed the same poison to kill others, Mr Yushchenko said in an interview.

A number of people suspected of involvement in the assassination attempt last September are on the run, he went on, adding that he was "certain that everybody will be caught" eventually.

The disclosure that the poison was made in Ukraine went some way to dispel suspicions that Russia was involved in the plot to get rid of Mr Yushchenko when he was leader of the country's opposition last autumn.

However, Petro Poroshenko, the head of Ukraine's security services, refused to rule out the possibility. He said the attempt to kill the president, who fell ill after a dinner with Ukrainian security chiefs, involved "specialists belonging to an existing or former secret service".

(via Marius)