So.....the President and government of Ukraine decided to cancel any further negotiations with the EU.
The signing of the Association Agreement is off the table. It would appear that the government are just too afraid of the consequences, i.e. the threats they have received from the Russian Federation and Mr Putin in particular cannot be ignored. The Russians are very good at threats and maybe we will never know just what took place in the 'secret' meeting between Yanukovych and Putin recently.
The EU officials have wasted a lot of time in trying to persuade Ukraine to forge closer links with western Europe. But maybe they still fail to understand the kind of people they have been dealing with in Ukraine.
Ukraine leaders are not seasoned or experienced politicians or negotiators. They are rough 'lets just see what's in it for us' characters. They do not think about the future of the country and its people. They do not think long term. The Russians and the Ukrainians certainly think alike. The Russians know only too well how to persuade their Ukrainian 'friends' to make decisions.
Yanukovych has agreed something with Putin. Maybe Yanukovych was forced to make a decision under severe duress. He needs to think about his personal future and just exactly where he will spend his retirement years. The Russian Federation is perhaps the only country where he could be safe.
Ukrainian people have taken to the streets of Kyiv to protest against the decisions made by their government. It is good to see people protesting for what they consider to be their future being taken away by a government/president that fails to understand them.
With just a few days to go before the meeting in Vilnius, I doubt if Yanukovych will change his mind and dare to incur the rath of Vladimir Putin. Therefore I can only conclude that Ukraine is in for a long cold period of discontent until at least 2015. When an election must be held to select a President.
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