Caspian Report - Issue 06 - Winter 2014

• weakening the executive authorities’
law enforcement bloc;
• including the opposition representatives
among the government members
and strengthening representation of
oligarchic groups oriented at immediate
signing of the Association Agreement
with the EU.
It is worth noting that for the majority
of European politicians, the refusal
of President Yanukovich to sign the
Association Agreement with the EU
came as a total surprise. The main reason
is that the EU perceives itself as
the main political player, actually as a
superpower, and is not used to similar
demonstrations of political force by its
weaker partners.
The EU leaders preferred not to go
into details and purposely ignored
the direct connection of this decision
with the deterioration of the economic
situation in Ukraine and tangible economic
losses resulting from decreasing
exports to Russia which by the
2013 results valued at over 25%. This
is why Brussels explained the change
of position by Yanukovich as the result
of political-economic pressure from
Putin.
The European Commission must take
into account that before signing any
agreement, any international legal
person may refuse to sign the agreed
draft of a document and insist on
changing its conditions. However, the
EU leaders did not bring themselves to
publicly acknowledge Ukraine’s right
here since this acknowledgement
could put into doubt the complicated
and bulky procedure of preparing
bilateral documents with other countries,
where the European Commission
is responsible for determining the
dates and the format of signing treaties
and agreements.
Brussels cannot punish Kiev for refusing
to sign the Agreement with the EU
by imposing sanctions. At the same
time, the European Commission did
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CASPIAN REPORT, WINTER 2014
Former Prime
Minister of Ukraine
Yulia Tymoshenko.