tymoshenko with corrections

One of the leaders in all the polls
for the upcoming 2019 presidential elections

is Yulia Tymoshenko.

Recognize her? And now?

Tymoshenko was a post-Soviet
businesswoman from the 1990s

who has been active in Ukrainian
politics for more than 20 years.

She’s been elected to parliament
six times

and was prime minister twice.

For years, Tymoshenko has based her
political strategy on populistic promises

such as cutting utility tariffs
and raising salaries.

Millions of Ukrainians finally
will get their own home.

The price for gas and tariffs for heating
and hot water

will be reduced by at least two times.

...Ukrainians will be able to get free,
quality health care.

Recently, she has also started
talking about “innovations,”

“big data”

and “blockchain.”

Her 2019 election program is called
“The New Course for Ukraine.”

But as Tymoshenko tries to reinvent
herself as a modern politician

she still sticks to her good old populism,

Promising, for example, to cut the rate

charged for gas supplies
to the pubic in half.

She also combines a love of luxury brands
with promises to defend the poorest.

Oksana video: Tymoshenko is running
for president for a third time

And this time she stands
a real chance at winning.

So… who is Yulia Tymoshenko?

Tymoshenko earned her fortune in the 1990s

She and her husband started by running
a video rental service

in the city of Dnipropetrovsk,
now Dnipro.

But soon they switched into
selling oil and gas.

In mid-1990, the company
United Energy Systems of Ukraine

which Tymoshenko managed and co-owned,

became the main importer
of Russian gas to Ukraine.

The media started calling her
a “gas princess.”

But this success was largely ensured
by a notoriously corrupt prime minister

another Dnipro native, Pavlo Lazarenko,

who later spent eight years in a
U.S. prison for money laundering.

Under his rule, Tymoshenko’s company

received government quotas
for gas supplies.

It paid Lazarenko generous kickbacks.

During their investigation of Lazarenko,
the U.S. prosecutors published documents

revealing Tymoshenko in 1996-1997

transferred more than $101 million
to Lazarenko’s accounts.

In 1996, Tymoshenko
was elected to parliament.

She first joined the supporters of
then President Leonid Kuchma.

But she soon switched to
opposition and joined

Lazarenko’s Hromada party.

When Lazarenko fled Ukraine in 1999,

Tymoshenko founded her own party,
Batkivshchyna.

In 2001, Tymoshenko, who lead the campaign
to impeach President Leonid Kuchma,

was arrested for forging customs documents
and smuggling gas

when she was a gas company CEO.

It provoked protests in Kyiv.
In a month, Tymoshenko was released

and the charges against her
were dropped.

Tymoshenko’s political career
peaked in 2004 -

when she became one of the faces
of the Orange Revolution -

a people’s uprising sparked
by a rigged presidential election.

There were two candidates:

pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych
and pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko.

Yanukovych won the election,
but with numerous violations.

Protesters demanded a revote -
and they got it.

Yushchenko won the election and appointed
Tymoshenko prime minister.

However, she held this position
only for one year,

gradually turning from Yushchenko’s ally
into his main opponent.

At the same time she started to become
a rival of Petro Poroshenko

Tymoshenko’s next stint as a prime
minister was in 2007-2010.

who also used to be
in Yushchenko’s team.

During this term, she signed
a gas deal with Russia

that later became the formal reason
for her second spell in prison.

Amid the gas dispute in winter 2008-2009

Russia cut off gas supplies
to Ukraine and Europe.

After the hours of negotiations with then
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

Tymoshenko brokered a gas deal and
supplies were resumed.

Over the next ten years,

Ukraine lost more than
$32.1 billion from the deal,

Andriy Kobolev, the head of state-owned
company Naftogas Ukraine now estimates.

In 2009, Tymoshenko tried to make a secret deal
with opposition leader Yanukovych

who had lost to Yushchenko in 2004.

They wanted to divide power
between them until 2029,

with Tymoshenko being the prime minister
and Yanukovych the president.

It didn’t work.
Yakukovych said no at the last moment.

Tymoshenko was shocked.

God please help me.

All is lost.

All four political powers -

the Party of Regions, Volodymyr Lytvyn's
Block, Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc,

majority of Nasha Ukraina
and Narodna Samooborona -

have agreed that we need to unite for the
people's and the country's sake.

All together, and not divide country
between two people,

as claimed in black propaganda.

In 2010, Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko
in presidential race.

In 2011, prosecutors charged her
with embezzlement

and signing a gas deal that was
unfavorable to Ukraine.

Tymoshenko was sentenced to
7 years in prison.

She spent three years behind bars,
mostly in a prison hospital.

The West called her case
politically motivated.

Yulia!

She was released after Yanukovych fled
to Russia in 2014

in the wake of the EuroMaidan Revolution.

After being freed,
Tymoshenko again ran for president –

but lost to current President
Petro Poroshenko.

But when Poroshenko started to lose
popularity over rises in utility tariffs,

Tymoshenko’s rating grew,
thanks to her criticizing the tariffs.

... (These are) shocking bills, shocking!

These tariffs are illegal!

Tariffs can be cut in half!

Now they are both leading in the polls,
along with comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy.