Calling For the Release of Yulia Tymoshenko

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to speak to an issue relative to the nation of Ukraine. It is the continued imprisonment of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Sadly, for over 2 years now, she has been languishing in prison on politicized charges that she abused her position in connection with a natural gas contract with Russia.

This is a photo showing the former Prime Minister's trial in Ukraine. This occurred, as I said, more than 2 years ago.

I am not going to judge the wisdom of that contract--one of an endless series of policy decisions any chief executive makes in most nations. But this is an imprisonment that has been recognized by the international community and countless human rights organizations and by the European Court of Human Rights as selectively prosecuted and politically motivated. This is an imprisonment that has a whiff of the neighboring nation of Belarus, where those who run for President against strongman dictator Alexander Lukashenko not only always lose the election but virtually always get thrown in jail--talk about a disincentive to run for office--but not from Ukraine, which has looked to solidify its place among the community of democracies, do we expect this kind of conduct.

When I visited Ukraine last May, I had the opportunity to meet with President Yanukovich, the Prime Minister, and the Foreign Minister. I was grateful they gave me their time. During those discussions, I always raised the issue of Ms. Tymoshenko's imprisonment, hoping it would be solved. They gave me kind of indirect assurances that it would in a very brief time.

Last year, Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma, as well as Senators Boxer, Casey, Menendez, and I, introduced a Senate resolution calling for her release. It passed unanimously last September--over 1 year ago. Yet here we are today, more than 1 year later and a few weeks before an important opportunity for Ukraine to strengthen its ties to the West by potentially signing an agreement with the European Union, and Ms. Tymoshenko is still in jail.

This is not only embarrassing, it is disgraceful. This is a costly distraction from all the other important issues in the Ukraine, a nation which has such great potential. It plays into Russian President Putin's hands, who would like nothing more than to see the European Union Association Agreement scuttled because of the failure of the Ukrainian Government to release Ms. Tymoshenko. Why would Ukraine's leaders want to succumb to Russian bullying and jeopardize political ties to the West over a simple grudge regarding the previous Prime Minister?

I am dismayed by the seeming inability to find a reasonable compromise that would allow Ms. Tymoshenko to seek medical treatment abroad, a move that would allow us to instead focus on strengthening the important ties between the United States, the European Union, and Ukraine.

Ukraine is our friend and ally. It helped us in Libya and in Afghanistan. Its leadership rightly sees Ukraine's future with the West. But when you join the community of democracies, you simply do not throw your former political opponents in jail over policy disagreements. You instead offer better ideas and beat them in an election.

That is why this summer, regrettably, I introduced a followup resolution again calling for the release of Ms. Tymoshenko. I am happy to note that Senators Barrasso, Boozman, Boxer, Cardin, Inhofe, Menendez, Murphy, Portman, Rubio, Sessions, and Shaheen have joined me on that resolution. Let me add that is not a group of Senators we see agree on too many issues. We all agree on this. For months, we have been waiting, assured that a resolution to Ms. Tymoshenko's case would come to fruition. We saw Ukraine take promising steps toward political reform. We saw some of Ms. Tymoshenko's allies pardoned.

Over the course of the last few weeks in particular, we were optimistic that the negotiations led by former President of the European Parliament Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski were seemingly making headway toward a solution in which Ms. Tymoshenko would leave to go to Germany for medical treatment. We were hopeful such a solution would come in time for Ukraine to sign an association agreement with the EU during the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius at the end of this month--a step strongly supported by the United States.

We held off in calling this resolution with the hope that real progress would take place. But last Wednesday, after 2 years of delay and obfuscation on this issue, the Ukrainian Parliament postponed a vote on the bill that would have secured this resolution--a move that only adds to the long list of missed opportunities in Ukraine. That is why today, with some disappointment, my colleagues and I have decided to move forward and pass this resolution in the Senate.

There is still time to find a solution before the Eastern partnership summit takes place at the end of the month, so I am hopeful our friends in the Ukraine will be able to find an honorable way forward to put the best interests of the country first and end Ms. Tymoshenko's detention.

I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment to the resolution be agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the committee-reported amendment to the preamble be agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

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