By Vetnik Kavkaza
Clashes between supporters of European integration and the police continue in Kiev, ahead of the Vilnius summit of the Eastern Partnership. As the Ukrainian government stopped preparation for an association agreement with the European Union, which was planned to be signed at the summit, and stated its intention to develop economic relations with Russia, the imprisoned former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko went on hunger strike. She demands signing of the association agreement from the Ukrainian authorities. “Today we have a clear goal to make Viktor Yanukovich to change his derogatory decision and sign the association agreement with the EU on November 29th. The document means much more than a simple agreement. It is our road map to normal life, our breakthrough from deep savage dictatorship to civilized future,” Timoshenko said.
Moscow fundamentally disagrees with her.
“Rejecting the association agreement, Ukraine achieved the fact that Russia wouldn’t fulfill its threats in the near future, and it is a result,” Sergey Mikheyev, Director of the Center of Political Environment, thinks. “Of course nobody in Russia thinks seriously that Ukraine will join the Customs Union tomorrow. We understand that the Ukrainian government simply returned to traditional swing, traditional balance between two centers of power to get maximal profit from both sides. It is difficult to predict what will be next, because Yanukovich demonstrated impossible zigzag movements. Ukraine is filled with rumors that it was a cunning plan. I think there was no cunning plan. Current situational tasks are being settled.”
Speaking about Kiev’s stock, Mikheyev noted that “from a technical point of view, they will fall after the summit, even if the agreement is signed. But I don’t think the signing will take place… Protests, despite well-known Kiev traditions, will begin to fade away in the winter atmosphere. And then the bargaining will continue. It is well-known that Germany intended to talk to Russia about a compromise. However, I don’t understand why they haven’t realized it earlier, that a compromise should be discussed… I am very sorry for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. I hope that there will be no casualties because nobody will benefit from this.”
Vladimir Zhirikhin, Deputy Director of the CIS Countries Institute, thinks that “Russia doesn’t mind that Ukraine signs the association agreement with the EU. Russia resisted the conditions on which Ukraine intended to sign the agreement; the conditions were imposed on Ukraine by the EU without an opportunity to correct them. The EU created a situation when Ukraine had to change not only technological standards, but the content and orientation of its industry and economy. If the EU reconsiders those proposals which were made – first of all, zero customs rates for European goods in the Ukrainian territory, and secondly, a demand from Ukraine to adopt a derogatory law on treatment of Ukrainian prisoners abroad, which of course concerns Timoshenko – such an agreement could be signed.”
At the same time, Zharikhin characterizes the EU position: “They want to buy into the Ukrainian market very cheaply, establish a situation of destruction of Ukrainian economy to eliminate all possible competitors and take the main opponent of the current authorities abroad.”
