Tymoshenko Ducks Questions on Cooperation With Kremlin

Here's how the lady in white handled the hard questions in her interview on Inter.

PM Yulia Tymoshenko: Today, we absolutely can’t have snap elections.

Interviewer: You will contest the decree?
Tymoshenko: I am convinced that this should be done so that there will be no elections. We don’t want elections because it means more chaos, and what’s interesting is that the elections are almost scheduled for New Year’s Eve. That’s when people will be eating olivye and vinehret and will be counting the ballots. It’s insanity, it must be stopped.

Interviewer: You believe the elections won’t take place?
PM Yulia Tymoshenko: I know they won’t take place.

Interviewer: They say that the Kremlin made a bet on you as Ukraine’s next president.

Tymoshenko: Let’s skip this question because, first of all, it’s not yet clear who will make it to the presidential election, and, second, it seems to be that it’s not really appropriate to frame questions that way. Let’s move on to questions like…where it’s clear that…uh…that actually a constructive answer could be provided because [otherwise] I now would start responding to this with nasty things. That’s not necessary [giggles].

Interviewer: When did you last meet Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk?
Tymoshenko: [pause] I think time is up.

Interviewer: You don’t feel like talking about it?
Tymoshenko: I thank you very much, I thank you very much. It was a wonderful interview. I think we’ve discussed all the important subjects.

Interviewer: Thank you.

Who is Mr. Medvedchuk? Former President Kuchma’s chief of staff and a friend of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Cooperation between Medvedchuk and Tymoshenko has been widely reported by sources close to Medvechuk and by President Yushchenko.

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/99096.html
Original source: http://inter.ua

More Humor From Tymoshenko

To dispel the treason allegations leveled at her by the Presidential Secretariat, Tymoshenko has resorted to humor.

PM Yulia Tymoshenko: I think in addition to that we're absolutely, positively guilty of Hurricane Katrin [sic], we’re guilty of all the tsunamis that swept the globe, and that’s why I think that this person is not being original. The only thing he does is pass the buck to everyone around him.

PM Yulia Tymoshenko: I did actually undergo eye treatment. I have some problems. Now I’m doing a casting call: I’m looking for a dog guide. [giggles] I’ll be looking at the people decisions in the Secretariat. Perhaps they’ll find something for me, Okay? [giggles] As for the second question, an accusation of national treason (right?), they charged me with seven counts, such as love for Ukrainian salo, you know, love for Ukrainian borscht. What other exotic stuff do we have here? But let me tell you that all this is nonsense. Honestly, I don’t want to comment on this. How are we on time?
Response: 25 minutes.

PM Yulia Tymoshenko: Well, in five minutes I’ll be leaving for the shooting range to train myself to do some shooting, you know. Right now, my sight is not really well, but I think that my health will improve and then everything will be fine, Okay? The optical weapons are already in place, waiting for me at the range. [giggles] Oh, dear friends, you know, politicians can make mistakes, but what politicians can’t do is they can’t afford to look funny because it completely ruins the image of a politician. Therefore, I would advise all the politicians of Ukraine not to look funny in their public relations events.

If that was a stroke of self-deprecating humor, it certainly helped her image. Unlike Yushchenko, who totally lacks it, Tymoshenko does have a sense of humor, but often uses it to duck questions.

This evasive technique may not sit well with critically-minded voters. Nor does it sit will with people, young and old, whom she promised to abolish the draft and return their Soviet-era savings.

Videos uploaded from:
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/94314.html (STB http://stb.ua)
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/94190.html (Channel 5 http://5.ua)