YULIA TIMOSHENKO Yulia Timoshenko is one of Ukraine’s most popular and controversial politicians Yulia Timoshenko (née, Grigyan, Telegina) is a famous Ukrainian businessman and politician. She was born on November 27th 1960 in Dnepropetrovsk, and attended local schools No. 37 and No. 75. She graduated from Dnipropetrovsk State University as an “Engineer-Economist”, and gained a Ph.D. in Economics. In 1979, whilst still a student, she married Alexander Timoshenko, and in 1980 she produced a daughter, Eugenia. She began her career as an Engineer-Economist at a machine-plant in Dnipropetrovsk which was named after Lenin. During perestroika she and her husband launched a video rental business. In 1989, she was appointed Commercial Director of the Youth Centre “Terminal”, which was organized by Dnepropetrovsk’s Regional Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist Union (executive positions in the Centre were also occupied by Sergei Tigipko and Alexander Turchinov). In the early nineties’, Timoshenko and her husband set up a company called “Ukrainskiy Benzin (Ukrainian Gasoline)”. With the assistance of Pavel Lazarenko, who was then Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, this became a monopoly, supplying oil-products to farmers. In 1995 she took her first steps in the gas-business. With Viktor Pinchuk, the owner of “Interpipe”, she launched a joint company called “Sodruzhestvo (Cooperation)”. Timoshenko is said to be one of modern Ukraine’s richest women This very same year, through her own offshore companies in Cyprus, the UK and Moscow, Timoshenko created the "United Energy Systems of Ukraine Corporation" (UESU). This enjoyed the patronage of Pavel Lazarenko (who by then was Prime Minister), and hence had access to interest-free government loans and tax-breaks. It also used barter and promissory notes in preference to cash. With these advantages, it created a virtual gas monopoly in just two years. In 1996, and enjoying her business success, Timoshenko launched her political career. She was elected to parliament for precinct #229 (Bobrinsky, in the Kirovograd Region), having gained 92.3% of the votes. She joined Pavel Lazarenko’s party "Hromada (Community)", where she reunited with her old friend Alexander Turchinov. After Lazarenko’s arrest in the U.S., Timoshenko and Turchynov created their own political party, the "Batkivschyna (Fatherland)." In 1999 Timoshenko took the post of Vice-Premier for Heat and Power in Viktor Yushchenko’s government. Timoshenko's present incarceration is her third experience of prison Because of the possibility of prosecution, she was dismissed after a year in government. On February 13th 2001 she was arrested on suspicion of having smuggled Russian gas, and of tax evasion, and spent 42 days in pre-trial custody. This was actually her second spell in custody, the first being the spring of 1995, when she had tried to carry $26,000 out of the country. After her release from custody she joined the "Ukraine without Kuchma" movement, and then created the the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. After the 2002 elections this bloc was a power in Parliament. During 2002-2004, she took part in various campaigns against the current government. In the presidential election of 2004 she joined forces with Victor Yushchenko, after signing an agreement, which promised her the post of prime minister in exchange for her support. She took an active part in the events of the so-called “Orange Revolution”. In 2005 Yulia Timoshenko become Prime Minister, but a number of serious mistakes in managing the economy, as well as numerous conflicts with her Orange Revolution colleagues, led to her resignation that September. But good results in the parliamentary elections of 2006, improved by the early elections of 2007, allowed her to create a majority in the Verkhovna Rada. In December 2007, the deputies appointed her for a second spell as Prime Minister. Timoshenko’s second term in the Office lasted until March 2010. For the Ukrainian economy this was one of the most difficult periods in modern history. The currency depreciated by 58%, GDP went from healthy growth to negative, and the national debt multiplied. In addition, the country fell to squabbling with Russia about the gas-supply (history remembers this as the "Gas War between Russia and Ukraine"). The result was an extremely disadvantageous contract, signed in 2009 in Moscow, by Timoshenko herself. In 2010, Timoshenko ran for president. She reached the second (and final) round, where she lost to her main rival Viktor Yanukovych. In March 2010, parliament passed a resolution of no confidence against the government, and Timoshenko resigned. The incoming Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, was disconcerted by the economic state of the country, and set up several investigations. He invited a team of American experts to conduct an audit of Timoshenko's government. They exposed a number of abuses of public money. They also discovered that Timoshenko had violated international agreements; she had mis-used funds from the sale of greenhouse-gas quotas under the Kyoto Protocol. In 2011 the General Prosecutor's Office indicted the former Prime Minister; notably for her purchase of public vehicles under false pretenses, and for her abuse of power and misconduct in concluding the 2009 gas-contract with Russia, which had resulted in losses to the State, in the person of "Naftogaz Ukraine ", to the amount of UAH 1.5 billion. In the summer of 2011 her notorious trial began, watched---like a ‘reality show’---by most of Ukraine. On August 5th, because of multiple instances of contempt, and a general refusal to comply with procedures, the judge changed her conditions of bail, and she was arrested inside the court. On October 11th 2011 the court found Timoshenko guilty in respect of the Ukrainian-Russian gas-contract. The court sentenced her to seven years in prison, deprived her of the right to hold any government position for three years after her release, and ordered her to pay $189m to Naftagaz Ukraine (the full extent of its losses). On December 30th 2011 she was taken from Kyiv’s Pre-trial Custody to a correctional facility in Kharkov Oblast. Parallel investigations have led to further criminal indictments. In late 2011, she was charged with attempted theft of $405.5m million from the state, and for other abuses, whilst she was running UESU. In January 2013 Tymoshenko was charged on suspicion of murder of one Yevgenii Shcherban, a prominent Ukrainian businessman, back in 1996.