Final Word from Monday, January 9, 2012
There's little doubt that Oleksandr Tymoshenko and his wife, Yulia, made large sumsof money on dirty energy deals, but the humanitarian-minded Czechs at the interiorministry certainly didn't take such tedious things into account when granting Mr.Tymoshenko political asylum. Czech officials subscribe to the EU view that Tymoshenkomight be an SOB, but he's our SOB. Major economic crimes are prosecuted inUkraine only for political reasons, goes the argument, so granting asylum to preventpolitical persecution is entirely appropriate. So what's next? Kiev might want tit-for-tatretaliation. This could be Martin Roman's big chance. If a direct line is shown to existbetween Appian/Škoda and Ukrainian business interests, by way of Markus Bücheland ČEZ's overpriced spent-fuel storage facility, Roman could seek political asylum inUkraine. He might be an SOB, the Ukrainians could argue, but he's our SOB.
Glossary of difficult words
tedious - tiresome or monotonous; uninteresting;
SOB - son of a bitch; used as a general term of contempt or abuse;
tit-for-tat - equivalent retaliation;
retaliation - an attack or assault in return for a similar attack.