KIEV, Ukraine — From the moment President Viktor F. Yanukovich took office last year, a central question was whether he would lead Ukraine west, toward Europe, or into a tight symbiosis with the country’s Soviet-era masters in Moscow.
Nineteen months of cautious navigation hit a watershed on Tuesday, when a court in Kiev sentenced the country’s most prominent opposition politician, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, to seven years in prison. European leaders have condemned the case as politically motivated, and hinted that they are unlikely to ratify a free trade and association agreement with Ukraine, a project four years in the making.
Ms. Tymoshenko, an acerbic populist who represents the European-leaning west of the country, rose to drown out the judge’s voice as he read out the verdict, speaking directly to a bank of television cameras.
“This is an authoritarian regime,” she said. “Against the background of European rhetoric, Yanukovich is taking Ukraine farther from Europe by launching such political trials.” As bailiffs led her from the courtroom, Ms. Tymoshenko turned in the doorway to wave goodbye, a small figure in a white coat and a helmet of blond braids.
Prosecutors say Ms. Tymoshenko harmed Ukraine’s interests when, as prime minister, she carried out negotiations with Russia in 2009 over the price of natural gas. Tuesday’s ruling excludes her from politics for 10 years, and levies a fine of about $190 million.
But international legal experts say that she seems to have been performing a routine administrative function for which she might conceivably be disciplined, if the government was displeased with her performance, but not charged with a crime.
With Ms. Tymoshenko’s trial at an end, European governments will have to decide whether to make good on their warnings that imprisoning her will freeze efforts to integrate with Ukraine politically and economically. On one hand, Mr. Yanukovich has defied intense diplomatic pressure from Western partners, crossing what one analyst called “the reddest of red lines.”
On the other hand, Ukraine has been under pressure from Russia to join its own economic bloc, along with Kazakhstan and Belarus. Even compared with the other former Soviet nations, Ukraine — with a population of 46 million — seems to waver between Europe and Russia, so that isolating it from the West could have profound consequences.
Mr. Yanukovich has made integrating with Europe a central goal, and he is likely to head off catastrophic damage by softening Ms. Tymoshenko’s conviction swiftly. One route to this would be decriminalizing the article under which she was convicted. In that event, her name would be cleared and she would be able to run in parliamentary elections in 2012, said Serhiy Vlasenko, one of her lawyers. This could occur as soon as next week, so that Mr. Yanukovich would be welcome at European Union talks in Brussels scheduled for Oct. 20.
He suggested as much on Tuesday, when he told journalists, “This is not a final decision.”
“Ahead lies the appeals court, and it will without a doubt make a decision within the bounds of the law, but the decision will have great significance,” he said, in comments carried by the Interfax news agency.
In Brussels, Ukraine’s foreign minister emphasized the progress that the country has made toward meeting European benchmarks, saying the parties “have never been so close to the association agreement as they are now.” A Foreign Ministry statement argued strenuously against linking the Tymoshenko verdict with the European Union procedure, making the case that political leaders like Mr. Yanukovich could not interfere in judicial processes. As news of the verdict spread on Tuesday, though, some in Kiev said Ms. Tymoshenko’s conviction was already marked in Ukraine’s history.
Critics of the verdict warned that Ukraine could follow the pattern set by Belarus, whose nascent engagement with the West came to an abrupt end last year amid a crackdown on opposition figures.
“For the past 10 years, we were in the process of getting to a democratic state,” said Yulia Shcherban, a travel agent. “I agree that people who are dishonest must be charged. But in Ukraine, we are going back in the opposite direction and getting back to the days of the Soviet state: Either you are with those in power or you are against them and you are in trouble. She was against those in power.”
Archivo:Yulia Tymoshenko, 2010.JPG|thumb|left|Yulia Timoshenko.


Yulia Timoshenko, exprimera ministra de Ucrania, ha sido condenada a siete años de prisión por abuso de poder durante su gobierno en la firma de un contrato de importación de gas ruso en 2009.

Además deberá pagar alrededor de 200 millones de dólares por los daños ocasionados y alejarse de la política por 10 años. Estados Unidos y Rusia han mostrado su rechazo a la sentencia de Yulia Timoshenko, una de las principales referentes de la oposición en Ucrania.

Cientos de seguidores acamparon al frente de la corte de Kiev para demostrar su apoyo a Timoshenko, además de expresar que Yanukovych, el actual presidente de Ucrania, organizó el juicio para deshacerse de su rival política, quien llegó al poder luego de protagonizar la Revolución Naranja.

Timoshenko expresó: