“Viktor Yanukovych, the president, is trying to play off east against West. If it could be drawn closer to the EU, Ukraine would be a great prize, with its population of 46m as well as big energy and agricultural resources,” writes The Economist
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The publication quotes a European diplomat: “The Ukrainian president must choose between a rich Russian dinner with lots of vodka and with the risk of discovering that he has been captured and his car stolen; or a boring Brussels sandwich lunch that offers respectability and a solid job, but only in the longer term. The profound reforms demanded by the EU, moreover, risk breaking the very system that put Mr Yanukovych in power.”
