Erstellt am: 12. 8. 2011 - 14:15 Uhr

Ukraine's political theatre.

Reality Check on the current trial of Yulia Tymoschenko and what this means for the west.

The world's first constitution was created by a Ukrainian politician Pylyp Orlyk on April 5th, 1710. But the country that produced that ground-breaking piece of paper has had a fairly rocky run in politics ever since. And the stories of power, egos, money and dashed hopes is playing out nightly on Ukrainian TV screens like a political soap opera on a continuous loop.

Take for example one of the leading lights of the Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoschenko. She has found herself catapulted from those cold protesting nights of Kiev’s Independence Square to the corridors of power and now she is languishing in Lukyanovka’s remand prison, awaiting the resumption of her trial on Monday.

Yulia Tymoschenko trial in the Ukraine

She stands accused of some unusual charges. She’s indicted of coercing the Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz into signing an agreement with Russia's Gazprom that saddled the country with an unfavourable price for Russian gas. Strange that you could be charged with something like this since you’d expect a Prime Minister to be involved in negotiations (even if things turned out bad, that’s just the luck of the moment that befits Prime Ministers, bankers & heads of corporations making similar decisions everyday). But she sees this trial as being completely political. She has refused to stand for the judge and denounced him as President Yanukovich’s "puppet". Presumably she wants to draw as much attention to this trial & behaving in this ways gets everyone’s notice

Our reporter for the region Karen Percy told me that Ukraine is still in a state of flux. It really wants to integrate with the EU, but discussions on a trade pact or an extended economic zone with the EU are in jeopardy because of Tymoschenko’s trial & perceptions that it is politically motivated. Then there’s Russia and veiled threats from Moscow controlling Ukraine’s much needed energy supplies.

So if Yulia Tymoschenko ends up in prison with a lengthy sentence what will happen? Ukraine will feel an unwelcome sense of isolation. First western capitals and leaders who’ve been charmed by Tymoschenko will put pressure on Kiev. Moscow will also take no comfort in Yulia Tymoschenko ending up behind bars were it to happen. Although she was no friend of Moscow’s whilst in power, she helped to negotiate the 10 year energy supply deal. Moscow will not want that deal called into question. And current president Viktor Yanukovych, though a long time foe of Yulia Tymoschenko is also a pragmatist; all he wants is for her to stay out of politicals for the next elections in 2015. He may look for a way to save some face on this, perhaps by offering her a presidential pardon or maybe she’ll receive a suspended sentence.

The report from Karen Percy.

University of Vienna requires more money to guarantee quality

Also on Reality Check, are we heading for a long autumn of University money demands? The designated Rector of Vienna University Heinz Engl, says certain courses at the institution may have to be scrapped if it doesn't receive extra funding from the government. He says, the University of Vienna requires a minimum of 40 million euros a year to guarantee quality education and ensure that Austrian graduates can compete with other international institutions. In fact according to Engl some 300 million euros are required to finance all the unis in Austria annually. Elizabeth Alcock has been looking at the situation.