Game not over: on Ukraine’s rebuff to the EU deal
... slowing down commerce and, in some cases, making it impossible. Gazprom made it clear again that it’s not renegotiating Ukraine’s treasury-crippling long-term gas contract, and in turn claimed some unpaid bills. Meanwhile, Mr Putin commenced a series of negotiations with Mr Yanukovych behind closed doors. The EU, faced with the blatant blackmail, started with a peculiar smooth-talk regarding its conditions, particularly the abolishing of the ‘selective justice’ (a cherished term of Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle), that is to say, re-trying ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko. So smooth, in fact that, ...