At the end of November and early December there was the uproar in the West over Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s anti-EU and pro-Russian demarche. Yanukovych suddenly abandoned plans to sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (AA) on the eve of the EU Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, November 28-29. Russian President Vladimir Putin was making him and his country an offer he couldn’t refuse. For the next several weeks tens of thousands of Ukrainian supporters of the EU integration, including those supported by western-financed groups, protested in Kiev with 35 of them injured on November 30th after clashes with Special Forces called “Berkut.” Subsequently, the Bekrut and the police showed remarkable restraint. Prime Minister (PM) Mykola Azarov apologized in the Parliament for the brutal crackdown prior to the no confidence vote tabled by opposition deputies won by the government. The political crisis stalemated first and then dissipated. President Yanukovych promised that the November 30 incident would be thoroughly investigated and departed on a previously scheduled trip to China—a major creditor. A flourishing alliance between the world’s most populous nation and some of the richest farmland on earth is the works.
The scenes were reminiscent of the “Orange Revolution” in 2004, when weeklong demonstrations prevented Yanukovych from claiming victory after a fraud-tainted presidential election. A pro-western government came to power in defiance of Russia with President Yushchenko soon thereafter requesting EU membership. In 2005, the European Commission president Barroso stated that the future of Ukraine was in the EU, but the Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn took the position that the EU should avoid overexpansion in view of the current enlargement agenda, i.e. Croatia and West-Balkans countries like Serbia. In 2009, the Eastern Partnership was launched with Ukraine being one of six post-Soviet nations. Yanukovych was elected president in January 2010.
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