Ukraine’s choices

Many analysts and editorial writers have perceived the protests in Kyiv’s Maidan and elsewhere as a sign that the population is weary of the lack of progress in recent years and now wishes to force the issue: finally, to move Ukraine from the old and worn subordination to Russia to the freedom of Europe. The reasons provided are usually along the lines of: for a better future, to live like Europeans do, or to experience real democracy.

The protests were fuelled above all by three events:

• (i) President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision not to sign the Association Agreement with the EU at the Vilnius summit in late November;

• (ii) the violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in the early hours of 1 December, an event that brought back memories of the post-presidential election campaign events in Minsk three years ago;
• (iii) and lastly, Yanukovych’s sudden meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 9 November (they met again at Sochi on 6 December), which suggested that he had made a decision to bring Ukraine into the Customs Union with Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. Read more