Yulia Tymoshenko's plight becomes PR disaster for Ukraine

 

The Guardian

Yulia Tymoshenko's plight becomes PR disaster for Ukraine

Thursday 3 May 2012

European leaders threaten to boycott Euro 2012 football tournament over treatment of Ukraine's jailed opposition leader

Photograph: Eleanor Bentall/ Eleanor Bentall/Corbis

For Viktor Yanukovych it was supposed to be a moment of triumph. On 1 July Ukraine's president hosts the final of the Euro 2012 football championship in Kiev's impressively refurbished Olympic stadium. A special presidential "lodge" has been constructed for VIPs, with 54 seats reserved for European dignitaries and heads of state. The pitch is already perfect. All it lacks are the goalposts.
But Yanukovych is likely to watch the final sitting on his own: over the past week EU leaders – led by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel – have threatened to boycott next month's event in protest at the persecution of the jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who was beaten in prison and is now on hunger strike.