It was the year 2004 when Yulia Tymoshenko became a political figure known throughout the world. A supporter of Viktor Yushchenko in the Ukrainian presidential election, she led with him what would become known as the Orange Revolution, contesting the election results and forcing a repeat election. Since then, she has become an inescapable figure in Ukrainian politics: she was twice prime minister and negotiated directly with Vladimir Putin during the 2009 gas crisis.
The Putin he met at that time is not very different from the current one, he guarantees, in an interview with the Observer, on the sidelines of the Estoril Conferences. “He was already doing what he’s doing now, deep down, only the weapon he used was natural gas,” says Tymoshenko. The result, he says, was that Europe’s top leaders “knelt before Putin to save their countries.”
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Source: Observadora
