Brazil, Ukraine Set Satellite Launch For 2014

BRASILIA, Brazil -- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Ukrainian counterpart Victor Yanukovich agreed Friday on a plan to launch a jointly developed satellite from the South American nation in 2014. The two leaders spoke by telephone for 20 minutes about their countries' "strategic" partnership in the aerospace sector, spokespeople in Rousseff's office told Efe. That partnership dates from 2003, when Brazil and Ukraine embarked on the Cyclone 4 Alcantara project, which involves developing a launch vehicle to put satellites into orbit from the Alcantara base in the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhao. The $588 million venture is part of Brazil's drive to join the club of countries capable of launching satellites, now limited to the United States, Russia, China, France, India, Israel, Japan and Ukraine. The first launch from Alcantara was initially scheduled for next year, but financial problems forced a postponement. Yanukovich took the opportunity of Friday's call to invite Rousseff to visit Ukraine sometime next year and the Brazilian president accepted the invitation, her office said.

PM: Russian Gas Price ‘Killing’ Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- The high price of Russian natural gas is “killing” Ukraine, but the government will stay away from portraying Russia as an enemy, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Thursday. We are supporters of good neighborly relations with Russia,” Azarov said speaking with World War II veterans in Sevastopol, Interfax-Ukraine reported. “We will never let ourselves make Russia an enemy like the Orange coalition government did.” However, Azarov said Russia’s refusal to lower natural gas prices over the past 2.5 years is forcing the government to take steps that would provide energy independence. “We can’t pay such a high price for gas,” Azarov said. “This price is killing our economy. The prices like that are slowing down our economic growth and letting blood out of our economy.” “So, in a situation like this we are forced to take measures to develop our own energy base,” Azarov said. Ukraine has been trying over the past 2.5 years to persuade Russia to lower gas prices to between $230 and $250 per 1,000 cubic meters, down from $431/1,000 cu m it currently pays. Ukraine is expected to pay about $432/1,000 cu m for imported Russian gas in the first quarter of 2013, according to the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry. Ukraine, which imported 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas in 2011, plans to reduce the imports to 27 billion cu m in 2012 and to 24.5 billion cu m in 2013, according to Energy and Fuel Minister Yuriy Boyko. Ukraine may stop importing Russian gas completely in 10 years, according to Azarov. Meanwhile, Russia has suggested Ukraine to join Moscow-based trade bloc, known as the Customs Union, in order to qualify for lower gas prices, he said earlier this month. Ukraine’s gas price would drop to $160/1,000 cu m after the joining of the Customs Union, but Azarov said this would undermine Ukraine’s plans to sign a free trade agreement with the European Union. The Customs Union, which includes Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, is responsible for up to 40% of Ukraine’s annual trade turnover, while the European Union accounts for 30%. Ukraine has been actively seeking to develop its own energy sources, such as coal and shale gas, but was also investing in building a $1 billion liquefied natural gas terminal on the Black Sea and awarding licenses to explore and develop offshore natural gas deposits.

Boxer Klitschko Sees "Fight Without Rules" In Ukraine Parliament

KIEV, Ukraine -- Heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko is heading for a place in Ukraine's raucous parliament and he says he is squaring up for "a fight without rules" against President Viktor Yanukovich's ruling Party of the Regions. With less than three weeks left to an election for a new parliament, the Western-style liberal party of the two-meter-tall Klitschko has rocketed up the ratings. With opinion polls for the October 28 election showing his UDAR (Punch) party lying second on 16 percent support, the 41-year-old has cloaked his massive frame in the mantle of opposition leader left by the jailed Yulia Tymoshenko. His surge in support, if sustained, could translate into 60-70 seats in parliament for his party - handing Klitschko a powerful 'king-maker' role in the 450-seat assembly. And commentators are already seeing Klitschko - projecting an honest 'big-man' image that sells well in the former Soviet republic - as potential contender to rival Yanukovich for the presidency. "If you compare him with other leaders of the opposition, Klitschko wins out: he is new, he fulfills all the requirements of the Ukrainian hero - big, handsome, manly," said Mikhailo Pogrebinsky, director of the Kiev centre of political research. But in an interview in his Kiev office, Klitschko dodges a question on whether he sees himself as a possible successor to Yanukovich, now half-way through his five-year term. "I have not asked myself that question." Klitschko, almost two decades in the fight-game, made his money fairly, most of it outside Ukraine and - quite literally - with his own hands. With this background he is an attractive alternative to people angry, but powerless, in the face of cronyism and corruption, the wealth gap and the constant sniping between the ruling party and the traditional opposition. But big-hitter though Klitschko is, he faces a bruising challenge to survive in the arena of Ukrainian politics where most punches are below the belt. He has, for instance, been criticized for bringing into his team some old faces from the opposition, some of whom are politically tainted in the eyes of the electorate. They include a former finance minister and former state security chief. If Klitschko does enter parliament at the head of 40 or more deputies, he will have to ride hard on his team to stop any immediate defections - a common practice in Ukraine where deputies are often bribed into switching sides. The case of Viktor Yushchenko, the Orange Revolution leader who became president in 2005 and then lost support by chaotic policies, holds a lesson in the nature of Ukrainian politics. "Klitschko is being well received now as a leader. But he should recall the sad experience of Yushchenko," said Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta think-tank. "There is the possibility that his ratings can drop before the election. The main thing for him is not to make any abrupt or poorly thought-out statements," added Fesenko. An absence of experience counts heavily against him, some say. "He is not ready for high political roles...yet he is effectively becoming pretender for the No. 2 post (prime minister) in the country," said Pogrebinsky. The reigning WBC heavyweight champion was known, in the ring, for keeping his opponents at bay with his long reach. But on the campaign trail, he mingles easily, diving into crowds to sign autographs and sharing jokes with well-wishers. His aims are to fight corruption and end poverty in the sprawling country of 46 million, he tells people. His informal manner - he dresses casually with an open-neck shirt - brings a refreshing change for an electorate used to the stuffier style of traditional besuited politicians. He appeals particularly to the young under 30s. In the interview, he rules out joining any parliamentary coalition with the pro-business Regions which is still expected to hang on to its majority in the new chamber. They represent the interests of the "financial-industrial" elite, he says. "Those in power today say they are fighting corruption, but their fight against corruption resembles a bee fighting honey," he says sarcastically. He says he will team up with the United Opposition, which includes Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party to tackle the Regions. The alarming reality for the opposition is that Klitschko also appeals to people disappointed with the old "Orange" order. The "Orange" leaders - Yushchenko and Tymoshenko - took power in 2005 after street protests against sleaze. But they then failed to deliver on their promises and, after years of bitter fighting among themselves, saw power slip from their hands when Yanukovich was elected in February 2010. Though Klitschko says he will team up with the United Opposition, which includes Batkivshchyna, to take on the Regions, he is bloodying their nose too. The ratings of the United Opposition are dropping under the impact of the Klitschko phenomenon while the Regions' ratings are staying stable at around the 23 percent mark. In Ukrainian politics, personalities and image count for more than programs and the image of Arseny Yatseniuk, a bespectacled, balding intellectual who heads the United Opposition, stands in stark contrast with that of Klitschko. "Yatseniuk, unlike Klitschko, is perceived as a "Mummy's boy", someone who talks a lot but says nothing, a populist," said Pogrebinsky. The Regions and its allies are hoping for an outcome which will cement Yanukovich's leadership and leave him poised to secure a second term in 2015. But his government has suffered because of unpopular tax and pension reforms and for failing to tackle widespread corruption that deters foreign investment that the country badly needs. Though Yanukovich's leadership says it is committed to taking Ukraine into mainstream Europe, relations with the EU have been stopped in their tracks by the jailing of Tymoshenko which the West says smacks of political vengeance. Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years last year on charges of abusing her office when she was prime minister. With indifferent relations also with Russia, Ukraine is now more isolated in Europe than it has been for several years. "The electors see in Klitschko the new opposition. Klitschko is perceived as the new symbol of hope," said Fesenko. "The voters need a ray of hope and for opposition-inclined voters Klitschko is the bright spot." His popularity as an globally acclaimed sportsman makes it hard for opponents to criticize or deride him in public. Klitschko, who trained in Germany for much of his boxing career, won 41 of his 45 victories on knockouts and is known as Dr. Ironfist because he holds a doctorate in sports science. On shelves behind him stand the works of the French writers Flaubert and Balzac, the full works of Lenin, Churchill's "Defense of Empire" and a book of boxing photographs bearing the face of former world champion Muhammad Ali on the cover. There are no pictures of contemporary Ukrainian leaders - only family snapshots: his wife, a former fashion model, and his boxing brother Vladimir who is current WBA heavyweight champion. Klitschko, who is preparing to hang up his gloves at the end of his professional boxing career, says the political fight ahead of him will be dirtier than any fight he has had in the ring. "This is a fight without rules," he says flatly. "The experience of previous campaigns tells us that in all probability there will be (electoral) fraudulence. With great regret, we are expecting some dirty play," he said. He says he is only on acquaintance terms with Yanukovich. But the daily online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda quoted him last week as saying that Yanukovich had once tried to win his support by using gangster language to establish common ground. Of Tymoshenko? "She should be freed. You can not talk of a path to Europe and of democratic principles when a representative of the opposition is in jail." Of homosexuality and an anti-gay bill which passed its first reading in parliament? "One of the main components of democratic society is the ability to choose ... we must be tolerant towards people who have completely different views for whatever reason." Klitschko has never been in parliament and failed in two attempts to become mayor of Kiev, Ukraine's capital city - a factor which might have led many of his political opponents to underestimate his campaign. Analysts say he has yet to face the worst in Ukrainian politics which involves dirty tricks, personal mud-slinging and financial back-handers being paid out to compromise candidate. Up to now, the only potentially compromising piece of material against him is a photograph on the Internet which shows him arm in arm with a known gangster who was killed in 2005. Klitschko dismisses the importance of this, saying the person was only one of numerous people with whom he has been photographed over the years. In two decades in the ring, he was known not only for his high knock-out rate, but also his patience in probing weaknesses in his opponent's defenses before landing the killer punch. He will have to show much the same cold-blooded stealth in the swamp of the Ukrainian parliament if he has aspirations of going for the presidency in 2015. "The main risks for him are after the election is over. He will have two years of fighting in parliament ahead of him against the majority in power and also against parts of the opposition," said Fesenko. "It will be like going 12 rounds where everything is decided in the final round."

Votes For Sale In New Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Wanna buy a vote? A polling-station official? Candidates are for sale, too. For those with deeper pockets, entire political parties are on the block as Ukrainians prepare to elect their parliament on Oct. 28. The Europeans and Americans have expressed their concerns over the re-emergence of political prisoners in the former Soviet state -- a phenomenon that was supposed to be a thing of the past. From behind bars, politicians such as Yulia Tymoshenko cannot run for office. Canada hasn't minced words and described the pre-election environment as troubling due to "procedural irregularities, widespread vote-buying, limitations on freedom of speech and a lack of effective consideration of election disputes." That assessment comes from the largest contingent of observers Ottawa says it has ever deployed. All in, 500 Canadians are expected in Ukraine during the campaign's last two weeks. What they see may shock, but it's common in Ukrainian politics. A recent poll showed 11 per cent of Ukrainians are willing to sell their vote. Some parties pay cash, others hand out supermarket discount cards. The rascals even dole out bags of buckwheat to curry electoral favour. There are more than 200 political parties in Ukraine's national registry; 80 took part in lotteries to staff 33,000 election commissions, but not all won, leaving two leading opposition parties shut out of the process. To add insult to injury, many of the one-horse parties replaced their people with those working for the ruling Regions party. Candidates known as "clones" are running against politicians with the same names in a bid to confuse voters. In a riding in Lviv oblast, three candidates surnamed Kozak were registered, two of them named Taras. And "technical parties," whose role is to split and spoil votes, will be on one of two ballots voters will fill out. Two ballots: one for the party voters want in parliament, the other for the person they want to represent their riding. There are 22 parties on the first ballot and more than 1,200 independents on the second. The last time this confusing system was used was 2002, when forces in opposition to then-president Leonid Kuchma beat those loyal to him. But a pro-presidential majority was cobbled together when MPs who ran as independents threw their support to the government after elections. Some predict a similar outcome this time. Polls give the opposition a slight edge over President Viktor Yanukovych's Regions and the communists -- a political alliance of crony capitalists and orthodox Marxists who, in most countries, would be opposed to one another. But in Ukraine, these two groups are united by nostalgia for the Soviet past, love for access to taxpayer funds, fear of Western-style transparency and a desire to move into the Russian bear's open embrace. There's a myriad of pro-Western opposition parties, but only three appear poised to cross the five per cent qualifying barrier for seats in the Rada. They include the Fatherland party Tymoshenko led for many years. While she's serving a seven-year sentence for making a bad gas deal with Russia, some of the ministers who formed her cabinet are leading her party's campaign. With Tymoshenko out of the picture, the boxing world's heavyweight champ Vitality Klitschko and his party UDAR (acronym for "punch" or "blow") are filling the charismatic-leader void and now polling highest among the opposition. Desperate to curb Klitschko's growing popularity, Yanukovych's "political technologists" enlisted star soccer forward Andriy Shevchenko to run for one of the "technical parties." The Ukraine Forward party claims it's in opposition, but dares not criticize Yanukovych. So when Shevchenko challenged Klitschko to a debate, the boxer called the ace football striker's bluff. Sure, I'll debate, but only if you're pro-government. If we're both really in opposition, what's the point? That shut Sheva up. The third opposition party expected to make the grade is the nationalist Svoboda. Leader Oleh Tiahnybok's anti-everybody-who-is-not-Ukrainian rhetoric has landed him in hot water in the past, but his party appears to have a struck a chord among voters wanting radical change, especially in Western Ukraine. Compared to previous elections, the current campaign is considered particularly nasty. Two months in, police said they were investigating three dozen criminal violations. Even if everything goes smoothly on election day, the elections process has not been free and fair. There's a lot at stake for President Yanukovych, who has enjoyed more than two years of a rubber-stamping parliament. Now he's counting on rubber-stamping election observers, who haven't seen what came before and won't see what comes after Oct. 28.

Meet Leonid Fainberg, The Ultimate Ukrainian Mobster

KIEV, Ukraine -- The man who tried to buy a Soviet submarine to transport drugs is fast becoming an internet celebrity from his prison cell in Panama. Speaking out from her cell in Kharkiv, jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has called on Ukrainians to “rise up against the mafia” she believes are running, and ruining, her country. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, a man born just a few hundred kilometres, and a couple of years before Tymoshenko, widely reputed as one of Ukraine’s most infamous mafioso, is fast becoming famous from his Panama cell in the notorious La Joya prison. Not that Leonid “Tarzan” Fainberg (also known by a litany of aliases) restricts himself to a cell, as he wanders about what resembles a large shack, flirting outrageously with fellow "female" inmates, preparing meals, and mostly giving every indication that, despite the filthy conditions and general bedlam, he’s rather enjoying the whole experience. Even if incarcerated, Leonid Fainberg has never been one to let life pass him by. Born in Odessa in 1958, in 1971 a young Fainberg and his parents (of Jewish origin) emigrated to Israel. Later, he tried out for the Israeli Marines, apparently wanting to become a Navy Seal. However, he failed to pass basic training and, when he again failed the army’s officer exam, his pride was dented, and the young man decided to look further afield. Fainberg’s "career path" followed a descent through the realms of criminality. 1980 saw him in Berlin, going under the name Ludwig, and scraping out a living as a "runner" for local mobsters, while carving out his own niche in extortion and credit card fraud. When one hit went wrong, Fainberg narrowly avoided a serious beating by rival Russian mobsters, and decided it was time to move on. Having learned his trade, he headed for the United States in 1984. With his thick, long, chestnut hair (which along with his uninhibited behaviour, and muscular physique, earned him the moniker ‘Tarzan’) and handsome appearance, he was every inch the aspiring émigré. However Fainberg’s designs on the American Dream were always criminal, with his belief that it was easier to steal and extort in the “Wild West”. Ostensibly, his New York business consisted of running a video rental shop in Brooklyn’s Little Odessa district. In actuality, Lech Tarzan, or Lenny, as he was known, was already making mob connections and earning a reputation as an arsonist-for-hire, with his services usually employed in torching businesses in competition with the Russian mob. Fainberg reportedly married the ex-wife of an imprisoned gangster while in New York, and partly lived off his criminal proceeds, though details of this union are sketchy. Falling in with brutal Russian gang boss Grisha Roizes, Fainberg found himself working in the furniture stores used as a front for drug trafficking. A good turn for mob kingpin Frank Santora supposedly saw Santora take a shine to Fainberg, advising him that Miami was the place for him to be, and setting him up with enough Colombian connections there to get started in the South Florida sun. Living in Miami between 1990 and 1997, Fainberg ran an infamous strip club called Porky’s, and revelled in a life which made hit 80s TV series Miami Vice seem understated. A three-year investigation, led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), uncovered a byzantine narcotic trafficking network, which involved shipping cocaine from Ecuador to St. Petersburg, concealed in cargoes of iced shrimp. Fainberg was the middle man in the operation, and is also believed to have facilitated in the purchase of Russian war helicopters and other military equipment for his Colombian "partners". The most famous tale that has attached itself to Fainberg is the tale from the mid-1990s, which saw him attempting to purchase a former Soviet submarine from the Kronstadt Naval Base, for the Colombians. The base was reportedly littered with Cold War relics, waiting to be snapped up by the right buyer, and they decided on a 90-foot Foxtrot Class Attack Submarine that could carry up to 40 tons of cocaine, to be painted to resemble an oceanographic research vessel. The deal ultimately fell through, not apparently, before a deal for USD 5.5 million complete with a crew, had been reached. The fact that at the time, Fainberg’s lawyer dismissed the claims as “ludicrous” has done nothing to diminish their widespread credence. At the time, Fainberg was referred to as a “Redfella”, the term given to CIS mobsters. And it was a purple patch for such Redfellas, with an estimated 5,600 organised crime groups and over 100,000 active members in the CIS. Kenneth Rijock, a Miami-based financial crimes consultant described the CIS gangs, around 300 of whom had moved abroad as having “more money than God, more ruthless than the 1920s Prohibition gangsters.” Fainberg was known for a quick, and at times ruthless, temper. In one reported incident in Miami, undercover agents with the FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency allegedly watched from a distance as Fainberg chased a stripper out of Porky's and slammed her head repeatedly against the door of his Mercedes, until the car was covered in blood. In another episode, he allegedly beat a dancer in the parking lot outside the club and then made her eat gravel. During his time in Miami, Fainberg married a waitress from Porky’s, and fathered a daughter, but it wasn’t to be a settled domestic life. An FBI investigation which saw 11,000 conversations taped eventually saw Fainberg arrested and charged on 30 counts. Pleading guilty, he cut a deal for the minimum term of 37 months by testifying against his accomplices and contacts. In 1999, having served his sentence, Fainberg was deported to Israel. But, around a year later, he found himself back in North America, this time, Canada. He hadn’t stayed in Israel long, but long enough to legally change his name to Alon Bar. On arrival in Ottawa, Fainberg appeared to be leading a reformed life, with his daughter and a new Canadian wife, devoted to family and Jewish worship. He did reportedly attempt to "go straight", and work for a mobile phone company, being dismissed after management cottoned on to his criminal past. Any notion, however, that he’d put his old ways behind him was debunked when he was the subject of a sting operation by undercover journalist, Victor Malarek, who exposed his role in the sex trade. For his book The Natashas, Malarek described Fainberg as handing over a custom-made two-fold business card sporting the “caricature of a mop-topped muscular man under the name of Porky's. The inside featured a cartoon of an ample nude woman bending over in knee-high stiletto-heeled boots. Underneath was his name - "Tarzan Da Boss" - and on the opposite side "Welcome to Planet Sex, Land of Fantasy.” Fainberg’s Canadian plan was to open a strip club in Gatineau, Quebec, to feature imported talent - Russian and Ukrainian strippers and lap dancers. During his ‘interview’ with Malarek, Fainberg boasted of his ability to import women from Russia, Ukraine, Romania or the Czech Republic. "No problem. The price is $10,000 with the girl landed. It is simple. It is easy to get access to the girls. It's a phone call. I can call Moscow tomorrow and show you how easy it is. I can get ten to fifteen to twenty girls shipped to me in a week." Shortly after the sting, authorities swooped on Fainberg, who had been trying to claim refugee status in Canada under supposed threats to his life from political groups in Israel. On charges of violating the visa regime, he found himself back in Israel in 2003. Fainberg’s actions in the intervening years are a little murky, though at some point he headed to South America, more particularly, Panama. Once again he began apparently operating a prostitution and drugs-based business, in three bars – Moulin Rouge, Doll’s House and Habano, in Bella Vista, Panama City. In June 2011, he was arrested and charged with pimping and trafficking, both of which he denies, with the second charge now reportedly dropped. Various trials have come and gone in a country not noted for the transparency of its judicial system, with one hearing suspended when the translator didn’t turn up. And, in recent months, from prison, Fainberg has re-invented himself via YouTube and his blog, posting as Lev Panama and Mr Prisoner. In his videos, which have attracted hundreds of thousands of hits and international attention, he alternates between Russian, English and broken Spanish as he variously strolls around a prison which shows fellow inmates toting guns, mixed-sex cells, squalor, general chaos but also wifi and other inmates communicating with the outside world via laptops. When he addresses the camera directly, still with his trademark long hair but now sporting an unkempt beard flecked with white, he does so as Leon Bar, a Russian citizen, he appeals both for his country to come to his rescue, and for people to donate $65,000 to help his cause. So far, Russia has been circumspect about whether to come to his aid. An investigation is on-going as to whether he does in fact hold a Russian passport. He would also be eligible to a Ukrainian passport, if he rejected all others. As it is, he is believed to hold Israeli citizenship, however, even if he does possess the Russian passport he views as a ‘get out of jail card’, the implications of assisting a character with such a shady past seem to be giving his ‘countrymen’ cold feet, for now. How much financial aid he has so far raised is also unclear. In his clips, along with thanking his viewers, Fainberg admits to involvement in the criminal scene, but puts his own spin on events, citing some ‘confusion’ as to who was a celebrity and who was a gangster, back then, and playing down any role in drugs and people trafficking. Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of his recent activities is that he is a co-creator of popular CIS children’s animation "Lelik and Barbaricks”. But then, few things in Fainberg’s life have ever followed the expected path, indeed many websites refer to him primarily as an ‘adventurer’. One thing Fainberg certainly is, is a survivor, having lived through the so-called ‘mobster years’ of the 80s and 90s, and outlived many of his contemporaries and counterparts. Few would bet against this notorious, Ukrainian-born mobster-turned-YouTube sensation having a couple more acts left in him. Where those acts take place, remains to be seen.

Thousands Gather In Kiev To Mark 70 Years Of Controversial Insurgent Army

KIEV, Ukraine -- Several thousand people gathered in the center of Kiev on Sunday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the creation of the WWII-era Ukrainian Insurgent Army that fought against the Soviet Red Army and Nazis, local police reported. The organizers of the rally at the monument to the famous Ukrainian poet and writer Taras Shevchenko said more than 10,000 people were attending the gathering. The rally participants, mainly activists of the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, are holding party flags. Many demonstrators have portraits of nationalist leaders Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. After the gathering, the demonstrators intend to march along the city’s center. The annual march for the recognition of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) on October 14 has become a tradition and is recognized as the day of its foundation. Before, during and after WWII, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its militant wing, the UPA, fought for Ukrainian independence first from Poland and then from Nazi Germany after it became apparent that Germany had no plans of giving the Ukrainians sovereignty. However, later the organization rejoined German efforts to fight against a common enemy, the Soviet Union. Ukrainian society is deeply divided over the wartime role of the country's nationalists, namely the UPA. One part, mostly residents of the eastern regions bordering Russia, believe UPA fighters were traitors who killed Soviet soldiers, while another, mainly residents of western Ukraine, regard them as patriots who fought for an independent Ukraine.

Video Appeal By Jailed Tymoshenko

KHARKIV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has urged her country to "rise up" against President Viktor Yanukovych's party in next month's parliamentary election. In an emotional video appeal, recorded covertly by her lawyer with a mobile phone in a hospital where she is undergoing treatment, Ms Tymoshenko accused Mr Yanukovych of turning Ukraine into a "police state" and her own life into "hell". The state prison agency retaliated by publishing a video of Ms Tymoshenko banging her high-heeled shoe against a hospital door in order to be allowed to see her supporters. The videos offered a rare glimpse into Ms Tymoshenko's life and state of health behind bars more than a year after she was jailed on charges of abusing her office during natural gas import negotiations with Russia in 2009. In the both videos, apparently shot around the same time, Ms Tymoshenko, her hair combed into a long blonde braid, looks pale, but energetic and determined. She is wearing blue jeans, a white shirt and high-heeled shoes and is moving around with the help of walking aids. Ms Tymoshenko, 51, is suffering from a herniated disc and has been receiving treatment in a local hospital for months. The West has condemned her imprisonment as politically motivated and the European Union has put on hold a key co-operation deal with Kiev. Ms Tymoshenko, the country's top opposition leader, denies all the charges against her, and accuses Mr Yanukovych of throwing her in jail to bar her from the contesting the October 28 election. In the video recorded by her lawyer on Friday and released on Saturday, Ms Tymoshenko urged Ukrainians to support her party in the vote and end what she called Mr Yanukovych's "criminal" rule. She said: "Today, unfortunately, the whole country lives under a criminal authority." Mr Yanukovych's Party of Regions hopes to maintain its parliamentary majority, but will struggle to do so in the face of an opposition re-energised by Ms Tymoshenko's imprisonment. The next presidential election is in 2015. Ms Tymoshenko used the video message to complain about her hardship in prison. "Every day I find myself not only under psychological pressure. Every day here is turned into hell in an absolutely conscious, deliberate way and it is Yanukovych's direct plan," she said. Mr Yanukovych's office declined to comment on the video. The state prison agency responded by saying that Ms Tymoshenko's video was recorded illegally and released its own video, which it says shows her resorting to a "provocation" and behaving inappropriately. In that video, Ms Tymoshenko takes what appears to be a portable metal detector and bangs it against a hospital door. "Stop these illegal actions," a guard says as he confiscates the object. Ms Tymoshenko then takes off her right shoe and strikes it against the door. "You are not letting me see the people who have come for me," she says. "You are breaking the law."