Gas princess’s world implodes

Yulia Tymoshenko faces jail over a 2009 gas deal with Russia.

She was nicknamed “gas princess” in the 1990s after becoming a key trader in Russian gas under premier Pavlo Lazarenko, later jailed in the US for fraud.

In January 2009, Kiev and Moscow were locked in a pricing row that threatened to leave Europe without energy supplies that winter. Viktor Yushchenko, then president, had limited powers, so Tymoshenko started talks with Russian premier Vladimir Putin. The deal between state energy firm Naftogaz and Russia’s Gazprom ended the dispute

But Mr Yanukovich, who beat her to the presidency in February 2010, says the deal forces Ukraine to pay over the odds for Russian gas.