Yuliya Timoshenko

Batkivshchyna Party leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko after interrogation in the Main Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, in Kiev, on Tuesday, January 18, 2011. Batkivshchyna Party leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko today requested that the Prosecutor General’s Office close the criminal case against her due to the absence of elements of a crime. "According to the law, the investigators have three days to respond to my request. I trust they understand the absurdity of the accusations," Yulia Timoshenko said after leaving the prosecutor’s office today. Yulia Timoshenko said that during today’s nearly five-hour interrogation she was forced to explain the principles of the single treasury account. "For five hours I gave a master class to the employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office on how the state budget works, how the single treasury account works, and how loans are given to the pension fund. I think they finally understood that pensions were paid with loans from the state budget, but this is strictly stipulated in law on the state budget, and it has nothing to do with spending Kyoto Protocol money," she said. Photo by Aleksandr Prokopenko / POOL /UNIAN