Mr. Arch Puddington is responsible for the publication of Freedom in the World and other research publications, and for the development of new research and advocacy programs. He is vice president for research at Freedom House.

Mr. Arch wrote an article about Skadden report on the Tymoshenko case in Freedom House blog. Recently I noted that Yanukovych’s regime tries to threaten to the U.S. goverment. So, now we have the expert’s conclusion.

Vice president Arch Puddington criticised american lawers of Skadden firm because of disregard the political aspects of the case:

American lawyers have often played an admirable role in assisting new democracies as they overhaul their legal systems. By giving even a qualified stamp of approval to the courtroom technicalities of a case whose overarching objective smells strongly of political revenge, Skadden Arps has made a regrettable departure from this praiseworthy tradition

He was surprized at the poverty of arguments of Skadden’s leading member Gregory Craig, who was White House counsel in the Obama administration. Mr. Arch rebuked to Gregory Craig who leaves “to others the question of whether this prosecution of Tymoshenko was politically motivated”:

“Others” have reached the conclusion that the prosecutions of Tymoshenko and her fellow Orange leaders were politically driven. Perhaps the best example is a report issued after the recent Ukrainian parliamentary elections by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). In a sharply worded critique of the elections, the ODIHR pointed first and foremost to the fact that Tymoshenko and another Orange figure, Yuriy Lutsenko, had been imprisoned and could not play a leadership role in the opposition campaign. Furthermore, additional cases have been brought against Tymoshenko, including one implicating her in murder. As matters now stand, Yanukovych seems resolute in arranging things so that his nemesis will spend the rest of her life behind bars

ET2