Oleg Dubina and Igor Didenko were interrogated in the case of Yulia Tymoshenko

On Friday, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv questioned the former head of Naftogaz of Ukraine Oleg Dubina and his first deputy Igor Didenko as witnesses in the case of abuse of power by ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Mr Dubina confirmed to the court that he considered the directives to be an agreed government decision. In turn, Mr. Didenko asked “not to provoke him to fantasize,” noting that the Prime Minister’s signature on the document was enough for him to accept the directives for execution.

The next meeting of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv in the case of abuse of power by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko when signing gas agreements with Russia in 2009 began with traditional petitions: the defendant challenged Rodion Kireev, the chairman of the trial, and asked to admit MP Sergei Vlasenko as a defender ( "BYuT-Batkivshchyna"). The judge refused to satisfy the petitions, emphasizing that by filing them, Mrs. Tymoshenko was trying to delay the consideration of the case.

After this, the court moved on to questioning witnesses - one of the first was the former chairman of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine Oleg Dubina. First, Rodion Kireev read out the testimony that Mr. Dubina gave during the pre-trial investigation. In particular, they noted that the head of Naftogaz refused to sign a contract with Gazprom until he received directives signed by Yulia Tymoshenko.

As Kommersant previously reported, in his testimony given at the stage of the pre-trial investigation, the ex-head of NAC stated that, as Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko told him that the directives, the implementation of which led to the signing of a Ukrainian-Russian gas contract fixing the price of gas in the amount of $450 per thousand cubic meters were approved by the government (see Kommersant of May 19). In addition, in the protocol of the confrontation between Tymoshenko and Dubina, which took place on April 20, the former prime minister added by hand that if Oleg Dubina had not obeyed, he would have been fired.

— How did you perceive the directives received, taking into account the situation at that time? — Yulia Tymoshenko asked the former head of NAC when she was given the right to ask a question to the witness.

“I perceived them as directives of the Cabinet of Ministers,” answered Oleg Dubina. “I received directives from Yulia Vladimirovna, looked at them, passed them on to Yuri Prodan (former Minister of Fuel and Energy.—Kommersant). Yuri Vasilyevich looked at them, signed them and returned them to me.

The next one to testify was the former first deputy chairman of the board of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, Igor Didenko. Let us note that he is now a defendant in another criminal case, also being considered by the Pechersky District Court, and is accused of embezzlement of gas belonging to the company RosUkrEnergo. Since Igor Didenko is being held in a pre-trial detention center, he was brought into the courtroom under escort.

Giving evidence, Mr. Didenko said that he could not remember the status of the directives - whether they were government or came from the prime minister personally. “These documents were given to me by my direct supervisor Oleg Dubina. I saw there the signature of Yulia Tymoshenko, the seal and the main figures - $450 (price per thousand cubic meters of gas - Kommersant), $1.7 (transit rate - Kommersant) and 11 billion cubic meters of gas This was enough for me,” he emphasized.

A clarifying question—Mr. Didenko was asked to remember the circumstances of receiving the directives—infuriated him. “Don’t provoke me to fantasize, I said what I know and remember!” - he answered. The interrogation of Igor Didenko ended with applause. “I would like to thank you and apologize for what the regime is doing to you,” Yulia Tymoshenko told him goodbye.

In addition to representatives of Naftogaz, on Friday, former Deputy Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Ivan Ratushnyak, two representatives of the Cabinet Secretariat Alexander Zenyuk and Oleg Koval, as well as an employee of the Prosecutor General’s Office Igor Bondarenko were questioned as prosecution witnesses. It is noteworthy that, as a witness for the prosecution, Mr. Ratushnyak spoke out in support of Yulia Tymoshenko. “Government directives are adopted at a meeting by adopting a corresponding act. And the directives that were signed by the Prime Minister at that time are her individual administrative act. It could be called anything - both an instruction and an instruction. And there is nothing in common between this instruction and directive of the government. Therefore, it seems to me, it is absolutely inappropriate to evaluate the actions of the prime minister through the prism of criminal legislation,” Ivan Ratushnyak confidently told the court.

After the end of the meeting, Yulia Tymoshenko noted that next week she would insist on summoning to court and questioning defense witnesses: “In total, about twenty of them are planned. Among the witnesses will be members of the government who have not yet been invited to court, as well as some of those who have already was interrogated."

Elena Geda

Conversation in front of witnesses