Is Ukraine Falling Back into the Russian Orbit?
Ariel Cohen /
In a recent Daily Telegraph news report, Yulia Tymoshenko, former Prime Minister and opposition leader, has publicly declared that Ukraine’s national sovereignty is being sold away, that Russia is taking over Ukraine, and that the West is letting this happen.
“The country’s new rulers see everything as an asset to be sold. Natural resources, state industrial monopolies, government cash flows, media organizations and factories. Russia is already taking advantage of the situation and I think they will do so even more in future,” said Tymoshenko, who was narrowly beaten by Yanukovich for Ukrainian leadership months ago.
In particular, Tymoshenko has been concerned with recent discussions between Ukraine’s leadership headed by President Viktor Yanukovich and Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom. After years of pricing disagreements and gas cut-offs between the pro-Western Orange government of Ukraine and Gazprom, Yanukovich has signed an agreement for the purchase of Russian gas, at a 30 percent discount—in exchange for a twenty-five year extension to the agreement that allows Russia’s Black Sea fleet to remain in the Ukrainian port and naval base of Sevastopol. (more…)