Blue &Yellow: Politics and Economics in Ukraine

Asked during a televised press conference if he suspected David Zhvania, godfather to one of his children, the Ukraine president said: “I think, yes. And that is putting it softly.”

Mr Zhvania, a Georgian native and current Ukrainian parliamentarian for a pro-Yushchenko party, held a senior position in the president’s hard-fought 2004 election campaign.

Mr Zhvania has denied any involvement in the case and has cast doubt on whether Mr Yushchenko was poisoned at all, suggesting the illness might have been caused by pancreatitis, herpes and facial nerve inflammation.