KIEV, April 16 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s allies blocked the work of Parliament Thursday pressing for investigation into the 2005 death of Ihor Pluzhnikov, the majority owner of Ukraine’s most popular television channel Inter.

The investigation is seen as an attack against Dmytro Firtash, the largest individual shareholder in RosUkrEnergo, who is thought to control Inter, a channel that has been critical of the government.

Tymoshenko has long been seeking to get Inter under control of her allies to obtain a powerful media tool ahead of the presidential election this year, analysts said. She also persistently attacked Firtash’s business interests, including RosUkrEnergo, over the past 12 months.

“The biggest party in the government coalition, the Tymoshenko Bloc, tries to get under its control one of the most influential television channels in Ukraine,” the opposition Regions Party said in a statement.

“We believe that such approach and such an interpretation of the freedom of speech is unacceptable,” the Regions Party said. “We call on the Tymoshenko group to get back to democratic principles and to respect the freedom of speech in Ukraine.”

Firtash is thought to control a powerful group of lawmakers within the Regions Party.

Tymoshenko lawmakers blocked the podium in Parliament - a trick often used by opposition lawmakers as a measure of last resort - after Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn had refused to authorize the creation of an ad-hoc committee to investigate the death of Pluzhnikov. The committee is supposed to investigate the acquisition of Pluzhnikov’s property, including Inter, by “unknown persons.”

Lytvyn argued the issue has been three times discussed - and rejected - by a standing committee, whose approval has been needed before the issue gets for the vote in Parliament.

Pluzhnikov, who owned 79% of Inter, collapsed in June 2005 while vacationing in Karlovy Vary, a Czech spa, and was rushed to a German hospital apparently diagnosed with toxic hepatitis. He died shortly afterwards in the hospital.

Some Ukrainian lawmakers wondered if the mysterious death could be caused by poisoning, but the German hospital had apparently found no foul play.

Pluzhnikov’s death came amid speculations that he has been selling his stake in Inter to undisclosed Russian interests.

Three months later Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy, a successful Ukrainian businessman and a former economy minister, emerged as the buyer of the majority stake in Inter. He paid $200 million for 61% stake in a deal that had closed in July, a month after Pluzhnikov’s death.

Khoroshkovskiy, now the first deputy head of SBU, the Ukrainian security service, admitted earlier this year that Firtash had an option to buy an undisclosed stake in Inter.

People familiar with the situation said that Firtash is the de-facto owner of Inter. The channel is critical of the Tymoshenko government.

Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies are currently investigating the poisoning in September 2004 of Viktor Yushchenko, now the president.

Yushchenko, then the leading opposition presidential candidate, fell sick in early September 2004 and had been rushed to a Vienna hospital. Three months later a Western lab identified that Yushchenko had been poisoned by dioxin, a highly toxic chemical. (jp/ez)