The gas princess. The Tymoshenko Case ebook

The book

In the summer of 2012, the author traveled to the Ukraine, driven by serious doubts about the representation of Tymoshenko spread by politicians and the media. Her image is flawless and free of criticism and opposition. And: While hardly a week goes by without news from the PR department of the ex-Prime Minister, there is no objective, comprehensive examination of the events surrounding this person and her Vita.

Interviews and field observations show that there are links between private and international interests: Western Europe, meaning the EU used Tymoshenko to keep the Ukraine at bay – and the oligarch exploits the West to gain her freedom and continue to make money.

The author

Frank Schumann, born in 1951, son of a pastor. After graduating from high school in Torgau, Saxony he worked in a glass factory, and went to sea for three years, then studied journalism at the University of Leipzig. From 1978 to 1991 employed by a daily newspaper. In 1991 he founded the publishing company edition ost, since then he works as publicist, publisher and ghostwriter. Margot Honecker granted him, as first and only German journalist, a 40-hour interview in Chile. With the »Last Notes. For Margot« and »The private life of Honecker« he had two top ten titles in 2012, this year he was successful with his book on Schalck-Golodkowski »The man who wanted to save the GDR«.

Copyright

Translated by Franziska Kleiner

ISBN: 978-3-360-51017-4

Cover: edition ost / Frank Schumann

Pictures: © Frank Schumann

© 2013 edition ost

in publishing company Das Neue Berlin, Berlin

Neue Grünstr. 18, 10179 Berlin, Germany

www.edition-ost.de

Frank Schumann

The gas princess

The Tymoshenko Case

Lukjanowo

Taking pictures is strictly prohibited. I tell you where you are allowed to take pictures and where not!«

The announcement is not rude or threatening, but certainly not ambiguous. He is the boss here. We are standing at the entrance of the Lukjanovo prison. It is the only institution of its kind in the five-million-metropolis of Kiev. They say about three hundred people are here waiting for their trial. The beefy man in his forties has put on a stony face. It says: classified information. I cannot read it. It would have been a delightful motif: the officer in front of the iron gate and behind him to the right the window with the view of the front yard of the prison.

A uniformed employee sits behind a barred window with a slot at the bottom.

»Passport«, he says curtly, and it sounds as if a German sergeant barked in the barracks. I bang my heels together and shout »Sir, yes, Sir«, which amuses both of them. The ice is broken.

The gate to the remand prison Lukjanovo (»Isolator of Kiev«) in the oldest part of the city. Tymoshenko went through this gate in the beginning of August 2011. Visitors are waiting to be let in

I watch as the man writes down my name and passport number in a book, then he returns the claret-colored document with the German eagle through the slot. The officer nods, opens the gate, and I follow him. After a few meters we enter a room with a metal detector, recognizable from airports. A rather corpulent woman sits behind it and beckons me to pass. I have to empty my pockets, and leave any phone with her. »I don‹t have one«, I say. She looks at me almost with pity, as if I were missing an arm or a leg. Her compassion is understandable but in my case unnecessary. In Kiev mobile phones are essential equipment for everyone. It is rare for anyone not to have at least one device in hand. Many people need even two. In some cases these things seem to be stuck to people’s ears. To whom and what on earth, do they constantly need to communicate?