KIEV, April 27 - The defense lawyers of Ihor Didenko, a deputy chairman of Naftogaz Ukrayiny, and Anatoliy Makarenko, a former chief of the Ukrainian State Customs Service, believe the criminal cases against their clients could be combined with a criminal case against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko regarding Ukrainian-Russian gas supply contracts concluded in 2009.

"I believe there is some political expediency in this [in a Tuesday court ruling that the cases against Makarenko and Didenko be returned to the Prosecutor General's Office for additional investigation]. The case could be combined with the Tymoshenko case," Makarenko's attorney Yuriy Sukhov told journalists on Tuesday.