Ukraine’s tax police raided the office of TVi television station yesterday, three months before a parliamentary election, accusing the outlet, which is often critical of the government, of tax evasion.
TVi interrupted its usual programming to show tax inspectors browsing through heaps of financial documents in its Kiev office.
The state tax service said it had launched a criminal case against TVi’s chief executive, Mykola Knyazhitsky, saying the station had evaded more than 3 million hryvnias ($375,000) in VAT payments, the Interfax news agency reported.
Batkivshchyna, the main opposition party, accused the government of censorship. Polls show that the party, led by jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, is close behind President Viktor Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions in the run-up to the October elections. – (Reuters)