Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovich is going to Moscow today to seek financial help for his country’s ailing economy, further angering pro-EU protesters who fear he is ready to “sell out” their nation to Russia.
Officials in Ukraine and Russia say Mr Yanukovich and his Kremlin counterpart Vladimir Putin are likely to discuss a loan of up to $15 billion (€10.9 billion) and a discount for Kiev on Russian gas.
Protesters who have occupied central Kiev for two weeks to demand the resignation of Mr Yanukovich and his government want to know what the president is offering Russia in return. They plan another major rally on the capital’s Independence Square today to demand closer ties with the EU.
Exchange
"We have information that a [gas] discount might be given in exchange for Ukrainian pipelines," said opposition leader Vitaliy Klitschko.
“But the gas transit system is a strategic component of Ukraine’s economy, and I would hate to see Ukraine’s interests surrendered.”
A large share of gas and oil imported from Russia by European Union countries arrives via Ukraine’s pipeline network, a system long coveted by Moscow. Fees paid for energy transit are a significant source of income for Ukraine’s economy. Mr Yanukovich has denied opposition claims that he intends to take Ukraine into a Russian-led union of post-Soviet states that Mr Putin is forming as a counterweight to the EU.
Protesters took to the streets of Kiev late last month, when Mr Yanukovich abruptly postponed the signing of a trade and political deal with the EU that would have committed Ukraine to closer integration with Europe rather than Russia.
Mr Yanukovich claims that his government discovered, after years of negotiations, that the EU agreement would actually wreck Ukraine's economy and put millions of people out of work. Kiev insists it still wants to sign a reworked version of the pact, and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and other EU foreign ministers said yesterday that the "door is still open" to Ukraine.
Head
But Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt bemoaned "doublespeak from president Yanukovich. Sometimes he says he wants to sign in the near future, and another day he says he would fire those who negotiated the agreement".
Ukrainians angry over the failure of the EU deal and a riot police attack on protesters are demanding the dismissal of the Party of Regions government, including premier Mykola Azarov.
Analyst Volodomyr Fesenko said the issue hinged on Ukraine’s tycoons and above all Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s richest man. “It depends on the oligarchs and particularly on Akhmetov, who controls a large group of lawmakers in the Party of Regions parliamentary faction, whether it will be possible to influence Yanukovich so that he removes Azarov.”