Azernews.Az

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, the prosecutor in the trial of Ukraine’s former interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko asked on February 14 that Lutsenko be sentenced to 4 1/2 years in jail and and that he pay some $37,000 in fines for crimes including abuse of office and misappropriation of funds.

Lutsenko, one of the leaders of the Our Ukraine-People's Self Defense parliament faction, was arrested in December 2010 and went on trial in May 2011.

Lutsenko denies the allegations against him, which stem from his time as interior minister in the government of Yulia Tymoshenko.

Lutsenko’s lawyer, Oleksiy Bahanets, told journalists that he was "doubtful his client will be acquitted."

The lawyer added that he was ready to appeal the verdict.

Political stunts
His comments echo remarks by Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who has accused Russian dairy producers of initiating the dispute to discredit their Ukrainian rivals.

Russia last year accounted for some 80 percent of Ukrainian cheese exports.

Rospotrebnadzor's past bans on foreign food products have often been denounced as political stunts serving the interests of the Kremlin, and the "cheese war" is no exception.

"There is definitely a political aspect here," said Pavlo Rozenko, an expert on social policy with the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center think tank. "Certain circles in Russia support an ideology that implies controlling Ukraine so that it is forced to compromise on gas issues, on the customs union, the free-trade zone, and more generally on integration processes. And Ukrainian authorities are allowing others to make fun of them by playing the game of integration with Russia and the European Union."

Russia has repeatedly called on Ukraine to join its Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, while Kyiv has been pursuing a free-trade agreement with the European Union.

In recent years, Russia and Ukraine have also bitterly sparred over the price of Russian natural gas.

The impact of the "cheese war" is already being felt in Ukraine. At least one cheese factory has temporarily halted production and economists predict a drop in domestic prices if products originally destined for export start flooding the Ukrainian market.