Ukraina valde Ryssland före EU - stora protester som följd, länkar i inlägg2

A Ukraine-EU free trade deal would pose a "big threat" to Russia's economy, President Vladimir Putin has said.

"We are not ready to open our gates to European goods."

Mr Putin urged EU officials to refrain from "sharp words" on the issue.

[...]
The EU has offered a paltry €1bn as a reward for signing off on the agreements. But set against the prospects of the high cost of EU integration, the inevitably higher prices for Russian gas, plus the reduced trade with Russia, the government poured scorn on the offer earlier this week.

"We were told that Ukraine could count on €1bn. €1bn is nothing. One can say that it is a pittance to a beggar," Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said during an interview on Russia's Channel 1 "Sunday time" programme.

[...]

On the other side of the fence Russia’s offer could be generous and immediate. Firstly, it is holding a $7bn unpaid gas bill over Kyiv’s head, which will have to be paid if Ukraine ties up with the EU. More generally, the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas will remain at about the current $411 per thousand cubic metres (cm) and somehow the EU will have to help Ukraine reduce this bill of at least finance it. But if Kyiv throws in its lot with Moscow, then the price would be slashed, maybe even to the $178 per 1,000 cm that Minsk pays as a member of the Customs Union. That would immediately free up a huge amount of tax revenue for other uses and take a lot of the financial pressure off the government at a stroke.

And there could be a bounty of other credits. The leading Russian banks Sberbank and VTB Bank both moved into Ukraine in a big way following the 2008 crisis and have extended a total of $30bn in loans to Ukraine's government and companies since, according to reports this week. As a member of the Customs Union, Ukraine would also be eligible for the Eurasian Develop Bank’s crisis programme that has bailed Belarus out to the tune of $4bn over the last couple of years. Finally, the Kremlin has reportedly promised heavy investment and joint development programmes in several of Ukraine’s key industrial sectors. All this cash and investment comes with no complicated talk about "values."

Now my sympathies lie entirely with the EU on this, and I’ve argued repeatedly that if I were in charge of setting Ukrainian policy that I would choose the route of European integration. But all states use economic pressure in furtherance of their foreign policy objectives, and they always will. That’s what it means to be a state. States will offer free trade agreements and bi-lateral deals in exchange for friendly behavior and threaten tariffs, sanctions, or even embargoes to punish bad behavior. That’s how the world works.