Authorities ready to arrest Tymoshenko

A Ukrainian court will order the arrest of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Sergey Vlasenko, a Ukrainian opposition party deputy said on Friday. “Today, Tymoshenko’s defense received information that on Monday evening a meeting took place between Judge Rodion Kireyev and a member of the Presidential Administration staff. The judge was told that he had a task - today, after questioning several witnesses, he should order her arrest,” said Vlasenko, a member of Tymoshenko's BYuT-Batkyshina party. A source in the presidential administration confirmed this, Vlasenko said. Vlasenko was excluded from his role defending Tymoshenko at the trial on Monday for contempt of court for not standing when the presiding judge entered the courtroom and then getting into an argument with him. The Kiev Pechora district court has been hearing the so-called gas contract affair surrounding Tymoshenko since the end of June, in which Tymoshenko has been accused of exceeding her authority during her time as prime minister by signing a gas supply contract with Russia in 2009. The government wants the “gas contract” affair wrapped up by Ukrainian Independence day on August 24, Vlasenko said. “The authorities want the Tymoshenko affair tidied up by August 24, so they can celebrate Independence Day quietly, without protests,” he said.