Putin offers support to Yanukovych for Eurasian membership, report says

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to support Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s bid for a second presidential term, reported on November 16 the zn.ua website, citing anonymous source in Moscow. “Putin promised everything that Yanukovych wanted for the country and for himself personally, including an arrangement for the Family for super-profitable but currently inaccessible schemes, Moscow’s refrain from supporting an alternative candidates for the presidential elections and active support for gaining international legitimacy after the victory (at all costs) in 2015,” zn.ua reported.

In exchange, Yanukovych was ready to refrain from signing the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement as a pause in EU relations. However, Putin’s demand turned out to be too high, namely Ukraine’s membership in the Eurasian Union by 2015, zn.ua reported. Yanukovych isn’t interested in joining, the report said.

Meanwhile, Germany still wants the Ukrainian government to arrange for the release of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in order to sign the Association Agreement, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told the Bild newspaper in an interview published on November 16.

Zenon Zawada: The best hope for the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement lies in the EU – particularly Germany – being willing to sign it without Tymoshenko’s release. Otherwise, we don’t expect Yanukovych to arrange for Tymoshenko’s release, particularly since he’s indicated he’s willing to forego the agreement based on that demand alone.

Putin indeed could have very well made Yanukovych the offer described in the zn.ua report. It’s clear, however, that Yanukovych doesn’t want to bear the responsibility of having to choose between the European and Eurasian unions, which will bring him only more headaches politically and economically. We will outline such trouble in a report this week.