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"On Point"
MINSK, 16 January (BelTA) – The leader of the Ukrainian party Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) Yulia Timoshenko is power-hungry, Ukrainian military expert Yuri Dudkin said in a new episode of the V Teme [On Point] project on BelTA’s YouTube channel, explaining the essence of the new corruption scandal.
Speaking about the corruption scandal involving the leader of the Ukrainian party Batkivshchyna Yulia Timoshenko, Yuri Dudkin noted: “Yulia Timoshenko is, and always has been, power-hungry. This thought has never left her.”
“Timoshenko’s first arrest was in the mid-90s for illegal currency smuggling. At Borispol airport, she was caught with a mere $25,000 in her purse, while the legal limit for carrying cash was, I believe, $10,000. That was her first offense,” Yuri Dudkin said. “She is indeed a professional ‘inmate,’ as she has faced criminal charges at least three times under various articles. And, most interestingly, under different political regimes.”
“In Ukraine, they call her the mother of Ukrainian corruption. That’s a meme among Ukrainian journalists: Timoshenko, the mother of Ukrainian corruption,” the expert emphasized.
Yuri Dudkin noted that under Vladimir Zelensky’s regime, Yulia Timoshenko has fallen out of favor. “Again, it’s driven by some self-serving political motives. It’s no secret that Timoshenko has always bet on bribery and illicit dealings in her work. Everyone is aware of that, Zelensky included. But that’s not the point here. They are pushing the narrative that this is about Zelensky positioning himself for future presidential elections. But the idea that he needs this election is absurd. So, claiming Yulia Timoshenko is Zelensky’s potential election rival is ridiculous,” the expert believes.
According to Yuri Dudkin, the fact that the search was conducted at the headquarters of the party led by Yulia Timoshenko is not accidental: “Zelensky’s government, particularly the NABU [National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine], is promoting a narrative among Ukrainians that Timoshenko plotted to bribe lawmakers and win them over for her Batkivshchyna party. Allegedly, she aimed to collapse Zelensky’s Servant of the People party by luring away its key deputies. This is among the absurd versions that lack any evidence.”
“The most interesting part: when Zelensky aspired to dismantle the NABU – an agency created along with seven other institutions, such as the Anti-Corruption Court, by the United States and funded by them – Timoshenko sided with him. She voted in the Verkhovna Rada alongside Zelensky’s Servant of the People party to abolish these very bodies. That’s the plain, unadorned truth about Yulia Timoshenko’s so-called ‘progressive’ work,” the expert said.
He noted that it is difficult to say what Yulia Timoshenko will face now. “She has some kind of foreign lobby connections. But abroad, no one has spoken about Timoshenko for a long time. Of course, she is a well-known Ukrainian politician, strangely enough,” Yuri Dudkin said. “I don’t know how the situation will develop further, but Yulia Timoshenko has major problems.”
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