On 12 December, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country is ready to work with Ukraine over the Customs Union issues, news agencies reported.
“We don't enforce anything to anyone. But if our friends desire to work together, we are ready to continue that work on expert level,” he said in his annual state-of-the-nation address to the parliament.
Russian integration project has been based on equality and real economic interests, the Kremlin leader said.
Moscow will consistently promote its Eurasian project without opposing it to the other integration projects, including the European Union, which Putin described as “matured”.
He reminded that Ukraine in May has expressed its interest to participate in the Customs Union as an observer and seek to join some of the Union’s agreements.
Putin added that Russia would keep working with the EU on new base bilateral treaty.
Mass protests burst out in Ukrainian capital Kiev and other major cities after Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych decided to put on hold a political-economic agreement with the EU.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on 10 December that Yanukovych “intends to sign” the Association Agreement with the EU that he rejected only last month. “Look, Yanukovych made it clear to me that he intends to sign the Association Agreement,” Ashton said after their meeting.
Ashton said Ukraine’s economic problems can be addressed by the support that not only comes from the EU institutions, but actually by showing that he has a serious economic plan in signing the association agreement. The signature on the EU association agreement “will help to bring in the kind of investment that he needs,” she said.
Ukrainians in the east look more favourably on closer ties with their giant neighbour, and Russia has worked hard to derail the accord. Yanukovych, who is seeking a bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund to keep Ukraine from going bankrupt, is sensitive to the economic disruption that trade disputes with Russia can cause.
But Yanakovych’s previous hope of striking a deal with both Brussels and Moscow has all but gone, Chris Weafer, a senior partner at Moscow-based Macro Advisory, wrote in an e-mailed note on 12 December.
“The resilience of the protestors in Kiev and the pressure coming from both the EU and Russia means that he is fast being forced into making a choice between east or west. There is no longer any possibility of playing one off against the other and the time remaining to make a choice is running out,” Weafer wrote. “Yanakovych is now down to two simple choices, either accept a deal with the EU/IMF or accept what has been tabled by Russia. Simple choices but with each having consequences that are far from simple. Either solution will lead to a much more divided Ukraine and almost kill off any chance for his re-election in February 2015,” Weafer wrote.