Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko asked Ukraine's general prosecutor on Thursday to close criminal investigations against her relating to a 2009 contract with Russian energy giant Gazprom, Tymoshenko's spokeswoman said on Thursday.
The current Ukrainian authorities say the contract, signed by Tymoshenko when she was in office, constitutes power abuse as it was unfavorable to the country.
"Yulia Vladimirovna [Tymoshenko] visited the Prosecutor General's office on Thursday morning," the spokeswoman said. "She filed an appeal against the illegal criminal case and asked for it to be closed."
Tymoshenko, who was voted out of office in 2010 and remains an opposition leader, says she is being targeted by the country's current leadership to divert public attention from the possible failure of Ukraine's associate EU entry bid.
She has been ordered not to leave the country over two further criminal cases into the misuse of government funds.
The government of President Viktor Yanukovich has long urged Russia to review the existing gas pricing formula but talks have so far been unsuccessful. In 2010, Ukraine's Naftogaz and Gazprom signed an additional gas agreement with a discount of $100 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Yanukovych has said Ukraine will pursue ties with the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in a 3+1 format after Gazprom said a union entry would cut the country's gas bill by $8 billion every year.
KIEV, April 28 (RIA Novosti)
