* International audit was ordered by current Ukraine govt
* Aide of ex-PM Tymoshenko says audit "politically" driven
(Adds Yanukovich's comment)
By Richard Balmforth
KIEV, Oct 14 (Reuters) - An international audit ordered by Ukraine's government said on Thursday that the former government of Yulia Tymoshenko misappropriated millions of dollars, but her aides dismissed it as a "politically motivated" exercise.
Publication of the document by the Finance Ministry came two weeks before local elections which will be the first real test of President Viktor Yanukovich's popularity since he defeated Tymoshenko in a February run-off for the presidency.
Opinion polls on Thursday showed that the ratings of Yanukovich and his Regions Party have dropped significantly in the past months as his government has pushed ahead with unpopular economic reforms such as raising the price of gas.
The 178-page audit, led by Washington law firm Trout Cacheris, said it had uncovered evidence of large-scale money laundering and fraud by the Tymoshenko government from 2008 to the beginning of 2010.
The use of offshore "shell" companies, sham contracts and other money-laundering techniques had resulted "in the waste and misuse of government assets and the enrichment of private parties," it said.
The largest single instance of misconduct had been "the unlawful misapplication" of 2.3 billion hryvnias ($290 million) from the sale of carbon emission rights under the Kyoto agreement, it said.
In 2009 the ex-Soviet republic sold 30 million carbon emission rights to Japan for $375 million and said then that it hoped to earn $2 billion or more from the sale of the right-to-pollute carbon credits that it did not use.
The audit alleged that the cash obtained by the Tymoshenko government had been used by high-ranking officials to conceal holes in the national pension fund.
PRESSURE ON OPPOSITION
Malpractice had also been uncovered in schemes relating to the purchase of vaccines, foreign vehicles and sugar, the audit said. Government funds had also been spent by the Tymoshenko government on setting up a programme enabling her to make gifts of land to voters during her campaign for the presidency.
Speaking shortly after the release of the audit report, Yanukovich, on a visit to Lithuania, accused unnamed corrupt politicians of trying to stop his ambitious reform program.
"We will make sure... that our partners around the world and the people of Ukraine know their 'heroes' who have been robbing the country for years," he told reporters in Vilnius.
Hryhoriy Nemyria, who served as Tymoshenko's deputy prime minister, immediately hit back.
The audit amounted to "politically motivated steps aimed at discrediting the opposition on the eve of the October 31 elections," he said.
"We consider this a continuation of the practice of pressure on opponents of Yanukovich's regime. It just goes to show that the king is in fact naked," Nemyria told a news conference.
The move was intended to intimidate Tymoshenko, divert attention from economic problems and cover up the corrupt practices of a political clique close to Yanukovich, he said.
Tymoshenko, 49, a mercurial firebrand and impassioned speaker, lost narrowly to Yanukovich in February in a bitter campaign in which she alleged vote-rigging by his camp.
Since Yanukovich took over, the authorities have questioned both her and her top aides as witnesses in connection with alleged corrupt practices while she was in office. But no formal prosecution has been launched against her. (Additional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Vilnius; editing by Ralph Boulton)
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