Save my mother, save my mother country
Eugenia Carr insists she never wanted to be in politics. Until this year, she had never given a speech, never had to field calls from the world’s media, never had to enter Lukyanivska, the 150-year-old jail that holds Ukraine’s most notorious political prisoners.
She was happy running her restaurants and living with her British-born husband and their pet dogs in their English-style cottage on the outskirts of Kiev.
All that has changed.
For Carr, 31, is the only child of Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister who in October was sentenced to seven years in prison for alleged abuse of power when she signed a 2009 deal that left Ukraine paying a high price for Russian gas.
That propelled Carr into the international spotlight as her mother’s most public defender. It has seen her not only adopt a political role but, it has been reported, pushed her marriage to the brink of collapse.
“I hate politics,” she said, speaking at the central Kiev office that acts as the HQ of her mother’s political vehicle since 1999, the Fatherland Party. “I am not strong like my mother.
“The first time I ever spoke in public was in September. I had to so that I could defend her from those trying to destroy all that was achieved in the Orange Revolution.”
Carr sat beside Tymoshenko in court, resting her head on her mother’s shoulder as the prison sentence was handed down.
Since then she has led demonstrations and, ahead of an expected appeal this month, is due to visit Europe and America to petition politicians to increase the pressure on Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
“My mother is ill,” she said. “She has problems with her back so that she cannot walk well.
“She has infections on her skin; stomach problems. Her cell is cold and damp. There is no hot water. Her doctor is not allowed to visit her.
“She has become more philosophical. She is looking at the past and realising all the people who have abandoned her. She is a strong woman but nobody can be ready for such a situation, especially if they know that they are innocent.”
The Orange Revolution saw President Yanukovych’s 2004 electionvictory declared fraudulent by the Supreme Court amid huge street protests. But in a remarkable comeback, he beat Ms Tymoshenko in elections in February 2010.
Carr maintains her mother’s sentence was “revenge” ahead of next year’s parliamentary polls.
In person, she appeared frail and nervous, hunching forward and constantly turning to her political adviser for reassurance as she called for the West to impose sanctions or berated Mr Yanukovych for wanting to restore Soviet-style control.