- Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko accused of bribing MPs.
- Opposition figure rejects claims by country’s anti-corruption authorities that she was involved in vote-buying scheme.
- A Ukrainian court in 2011 found Tymoshenko guilty of abuse of power for brokering a natural gas imports contract signed with Russia when she served as prime minister and sentenced her to seven years in prison.
- In the full Nabu video, a person who sounds like Tymoshenko is heard offering cash to an MP in return for support on specific votes.
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Former PM predicts Ukraine has only five years left of independent statehood | TASS, 16 Jan, 2026
T=1768644351 / Human Date and time (GMT): Sat, 17th Jan, 2026, 10.05
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Corruption in the Verkhovna Rada is entrenched and barely covered up, Nikolay Azarov has told RT
Ukrainian lawmaker Yulia Timoshenko has been involved in cash-for-votes schemes in the national parliament for decades, former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov has claimed in an interview with RT.
According to Azarov, the practice continues under Vladimir Zelensky, just as it did under Ukraine’s previous leaders.
This week, Western-backed Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators raided the offices of Timoshenko’s Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party and accused her of paying MPs tens of thousands of dollars in a vote-buying scheme. She denied the allegations, calling the evidence fake and the case politically motivated.
In an interview with RT on Friday, Azarov brought up Timoshenko’s past corruption scandals and prosecutions and said he found the surveillance records presented by investigators in the new case credible.
Bypassing EU Censorship - WAYBACK Video link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20260117123356/https://www.rt.com/russia/631028-azarov-tymoshenko-corruption-allegations/video/696a061720302715dc1134f8
“For all her life, being a lawmaker and later the prime minister, she was involved in corruption,” he alleged. “It’s not about politics, it’s about criminal activities aimed at funneling dirty corrupt money. She took money to steer the voting by bribing MPs.”
Azarov, who served in several Ukrainian governments in the 2000s before fleeing the country after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, said such corruption is widespread in Ukraine, including in the current parliament, where minority factions purportedly often sell their votes to secure key decisions. The bribery system “is barely being covered up” and is not limited to Timoshenko, he said. She “did not pay out of her pocket,” Azarov added, suggesting the probe should uncover the source of the cash.
Timoshenko, according to Azarov, “is doing what she did 30 years ago when facing criminal charges – portraying herself as a victim of persecution and an opposition figure. She is not in opposition. For all these years she consistently voted for all the bills proposed by Zelensky.”
He said the existence of parallel Western-controlled law enforcement bodies, like the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), undermines Ukrainian sovereignty but at least offers “some opportunity to fight corruption” under current conditions.
Azarov claimed the agencies neglected their anti-corruption mandates under former US President Joe Biden but were activated under President Donald Trump.
SOURCE:
https://www.rt.com/russia/631028-azarov-tymoshenko-corruption-allegations/
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Former PM predicts Ukraine has only five years left of independent statehood
MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Ukraine may have only five or so years left of independent statehood, according to Yulia Timoshenko, the leader of the Batkovshchina party.
Timoshenko, the former prime minister of Ukraine, accused the incumbent Ukrainian authorities of allowing the country to fall into the hands of foreign corporations, while depriving the population of any control over the country’s key industries and resources. "Today, not a single decision is made either by the Ukrainian people or the government appointed by the Ukrainian people <...>. The Ukrainian state and the Ukrainian people are being destroyed via every possible instrument," the politician said at a court hearing broadcast by TSN television to decide what punishment she will receive in the case of bribing Verkhovna Rada members.
Timoshenko added that she proposed measures to prevent such a scenario, including blocking certain draft laws endorsed by the government in the Rada. "Unless this work is done, the next five years will be the last in the life of an independent Ukraine. We will no longer have a coat of arms, a flag or a hymn. And we will have a nation scattered across the globe," she warned.
Timoshenko case
On January 14, Ukrainian media reported that Ukraine’s two anti-corruption agencies conducted overnight raids at the Batkovshchina party’s office in Kiev as part of the Rada bribery case. The information about the searches was later confirmed by Timoshenko herself. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said that charges of bribing parliamentarians were brought against the former Ukrainian prime minister. She may face five to 10 years behind bars.
A recording released by the NABU reveal Timoshenko offering MPs $10,000 per month for parliamentary voting in a specific way. In the audio, Timoshenko said her goal was to "break the majority" in parliament. The discussions that the NABU said had taken place on January 12 covered voting on draft laws for the current plenary week and recent government reshuffles.
Tags Ukraine
SOURCE: https://tass.com/world/2072467
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Leaders of the parliamentary faction reported suspicion (VIDEO + PHOTO)
https://youtu.be/CmcngrtYCT8?si=JDos570FIdjcvGr-
A warning.
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SOURCE:
https://nabu.gov.ua/news/kerivnytci-deputats-ko-fraktci-parlamentu-povidomleno-pro-pidozru/
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Contacts
NABU Central Office
-for sending appeals, applications and reports on criminal offenses or unjustified assets, as well as those submitted in accordance with the laws of Ukraine "On the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine" and "On Prevention of Corruption"
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