MEPs tell Russia to ease pressure on Kiev over EU pact

[Rainman05]

MEPs tell Russia to ease pressure on Kiev over EU pact | euronews, Europe

Any retaliatory moves by Russia over Ukraine’s planned trade pact with the EU would be illegal, a leading group of MEPs said on Wednesday.
The European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee passed a motion urging Moscow to respect the Ukrainian government’s choice to forge closer ties with Brussels.

The Kremlin has raised the possibility of taking punitive measures against Kiev if the agreement goes ahead as planned at a summit in Lithuania this November.

Hello. MEPs, this is the oil pipeline from Russia speaking. Yeah... We kinda have you by the sensitive areas you know... better tread carefully. Dos vedanya.

That's one.

Second. The orange revolution in Ukraine got overthrown and it's leaders are either in jail or in exile (there is a government in exile in the Czech republic I think, run by Yulia Timoshenko's husband) and replaced by the pro-russian party. I understand their desire to forge close ties to the EU, for the same reasons Moldavia does. But these are all minor, timid moves... testing the waters. Nothing serious. they want to see how much they can move about before Moscow takes notice and starts reining in the noose.
The truth is that political decency... so not outright political mafia, is still pretty far from being achieved in Ukraine. And this trade agreement won't be a stimulus to move towards political reforms. It'll just land a few more bucks in the pockets of wealthy, corrupt politicians. the main move towards pro-EU ideas come from large segments of ukrainians under 40 who live in S, SW and W Ukraine.