KIEV, Aug. 20 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, suspending her vacation to attend a government meeting on Wednesday, denied allegations of secretly promoting Russian interests in exchange for support from Moscow at the next presidential election in Ukraine.

Tymoshenko, who appeared calm, argued the allegations had been made in a bid to topple the coalition. He also said the “provocation” will have no much impact on her government.

Responding to allegations that she spent her vacation on the Italian island of Sardinia and was joined by some members of her secret pro-Moscow campaign team, Tymoshenko said: “I have never been on Sardinia.”

“If they don’t believe this, let them go and ask the sardines that swim there,” she said.

“You understand when these major allegations have been made, they counted on some rough reaction from my side,” Tymoshenko said at a press conference after the meeting. “They thought the democratic coalition, which lives a very hard life, will be destroyed at once.”

“It is impossible to take me by provocation as my reaction, my emotions are under very careful control, under self-control,” Tymoshenko said. “I have a high degree of responsibility for the country and that’s why my reaction is calm.”

The comments are the first public reaction from Tymoshenko to some heavy allegations made by the office President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday. The office accused Tymoshenko of promoting Russian interests in a secrete deal that calls for Russia spending $1 billion to support her bid for the presidency in Ukraine.

The office said a secrete team had been already set up in Moscow to map out and to finance the Tymoshenko campaign in Ukraine. The team is led by Viktor Medvedchuk, Yushchenko’s foe and the alleged mastermind of the massive presidential election fraud that had eventually triggered the Orange Revolution in November 2004.

Stanislav Belkovskiy, a well-connected Moscow-based political analyst, said Monday that some Russian security services have been actively pushing for making Tymoshenko “the partner of the Kremlin.”

Belkovskiy also said “it was a well-known” fact that Tymoshenko has been actively cooperating with Medvedchuk.

The Yushchenko office said it had obtained undisclosed information confirming the allegations against Tymoshenko, adding that it will be submitted to law enforcement agencies for investigation.

Tymoshenko has recently pushed through several high-profile political decisions that had de-facto strengthened the Russian interests in Ukraine.

In May, Tymoshenko derailed an oil exploration project led by U.S. oil company Vanco Energy that had called for drilling offshore the Black Sea to reduce dependence on Russian energy imports.

In July, Tymoshenko derailed signing of a contract for starting supplies of Caspian Sea crude oil via Ukrainian oil pipeline Odessa-Brody to the European Union, strengthening Russian oil monopoly in the region.

Also in July, Tymoshenko refused to attend high-profile Orthodox Christianity celebrations at which Yushchenko had publicly asked the head of Orthodox Christianity, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, to bless the creation of a Ukrainian Church independent of Russia.

Tymoshenko survived a no-confidence vote on July 13 after the vehemently pro-Russian Communist Party, a small opposition group, had unexpectedly supported her.

But perhaps more articulate was Tymoshenko’s silence in response to an invasion of Russian troops and tanks into Georgia, a small country and an ally of Ukraine, which had put the world on the brink of the new cold war.

By contrast, Yushchenko played a crucial role in rallying early international support for the pro-Western Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Andriy Kyslynskiy, a deputy chief of staff at the Yushchenko office who made the allegations on Monday, said Wednesday he was not convinced by Tymoshenko’s comments.

“Not a single argument has been provided for public discussion, while instead the commentators are playing with words and try to display wit,” Kyslynskiy said. “This does not satisfy those who can think.” (tl/ez)