One of the things that tends to get lost in the reportage about the current mess in Ukraine is this: President Yanukovych is the duly-elected president of the nation. He is from the side of the Ukrainian political spectrum that leans towards Russia, not towards the European Union.
So it was not any big surprise that Yanukovych scrapped a deal to join the EU.
Not that joining the EU was any great deal, what with the current financial mess in the Eurozone. But I digress.
The protests started when the supporters of the deal, who were not the same people who supported Yanukovych, opted to take their displeasure to the street and to try and force Yanukovych, the duly-elected president, to step down. Yanukovych wasn't having any of that shit. So the protests got ramped up, and the police response got ramped up and they got to the point of shooting at each other.
But now they've reached a deal, maybe.
I'm kind of surprised, actually. I half-believed that things would get a lot worse and then Yanukovych would ask the Russians for the loan of a couple of motorized rifle divisions to help "restore stability".
And I kind of doubt that the EU will offer much in the way of financial aid to the Ukrainians. Because at the end of the day, financial aid from the Eu means that the Germans will have to cough it up, and they're probably getting sick and tired of the EU demanding more money from Germany.
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2 comments:
And don't forget they get ALL their oil and gas from Russia... And Putin has turned the spigot off before...
I'd be surprised if Putin lets this slide... wait until the Sochi olympics wind up... btw, Moon of Alabama does a good job tracking this stuff http://www.moonofalabama.org/
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