UKRAINE: Former presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko confirms she would run again at the next presidential election
Record ID:
731422
UKRAINE: Former presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko confirms she would run again at the next presidential election
- Title: UKRAINE: Former presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko confirms she would run again at the next presidential election
- Date: 13th April 2010
- Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (APRIL 12, 2010) (REUTERS) OPPOSITION LEADER, YULIA TYMOSHENKO TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER, YULIA TYMOSHENKO, SAYING "I will certainly run and I will work on uniting all the best political forces in society in order to hold the next presidential poll as soon as possible." JOURNALISTS TAKING NOTES (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER, YULIA TYMOSHENKO, SAYING "The Ukrainian gas transportation system is not just the pipes that carry the gas. This is a system of protection of our energy security. This is a system of diversification of gas delivery to the European Union. This is a system that provides stability of gas delivery to the European Union. Also, the fact that Ukraine owns its own gas transportation system contributes to maintaining political balance, it is by all means a protection of our political sovereignty." TYMOSHENKO TALKING TO JOURNALISTS TYMOSHENKO SHAKING HANDS AND LEAVING
- Embargoed: 28th April 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Ukraine
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Domestic Politics,People
- Reuters ID: LVAU4PQWMJP05CL20KKT7TBBWCW
- Story Text: Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister of Ukraine and close contender in the recent presidential election, tells journalists that she plans to run next time round and will campaign for a presidential election to be called ''as soon as possible.'' At a news conference in Kiev on Monday (April 12) former Ukrainian prime minister and ex-presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko confirmed she would run again at the next presidential poll.
"I will certainly run and I will work on uniting all the best political forces in society in order to hold the next presidential poll as soon as possible," Tymoshenko told journalists.
Tymoshenko, a bitter rival of President Viktor Yanukovich who beat her in the run-off for president in February, hopes to win at the next parliamentary election in 2012 and challenge Yanukovich at the next presidential poll.
Commenting on the vital issue of the Ukrainian gas pipeline network, Tymoshenko said she opposed the current government's possible plans to change the legislation that forbids privatisation of its pipelines.
"The Ukrainian gas transportation system is not just the pipes that carry the gas. This is a system of protection of our energy security," Tymoshenko said.
''This is a system of diversification of gas delivery to the European Union. This is a system that provides stability of gas delivery to the European Union. Also, the fact that Ukraine owns its own gas transportation system contributes to maintaining political balance, it is by all means a protection of our political sovereignty," she added.
Last month Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin invited compromise with Ukraine on gas trade issues that divide the ex-Soviet neighbours.
Putin told Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who was visiting Moscow in March for the first time since his appointment, that he was prepared to consider lower gas prices for Kiev and to invest in a consortium to manage Ukraine's pipeline network.
European consumers, reliant on safe passage of Russian gas via Ukraine for a fifth of their supplies, are keen to avoid a repeat of a dispute in January 2009 that cut off deliveries to homes and businesses for nearly three midwinter weeks.
The election of Viktor Yanukovich as Ukrainian president in February raised hopes in Moscow that ties between the neighbours could be rebuilt after years of frosty relations with Ukraine's former pro-Western leaders.
Yanukovich and Azarov have both said that cutting Russian gas prices was a top priority in supporting a Ukrainian economy savaged by the economic crisis and that they are prepared to change legislation that forbids privatisation of its pipelines.
That would allow Russia and the European Union to co-manage and upgrade the outdated system, and possibly allow Kiev to persuade Moscow not to build the expensive South Stream pipeline that will bypass its territory.
Putin said the construction of South Stream, as well as the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea, would inevitably lead to a decline in Russia's interest in the Ukrainian gas pipeline network. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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