Читаем Putin's Wars полностью

However, the three founding members of EurAsEc—Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan—decided to go further and form an inner circle with a fully fledged customs union, leading to a single market. The Customs Union (Tamozhennyy Soyuz) was ratified on July 5, 2010. It included plans to adopt a common currency. In this instance, Russia was following the logic of European integration in which a deepening of economic integration leads, via a process of functional spillover, to a gradual political integration of the member states. Unlike the Union State the Customs Union is making progress and Russian officials are busy expanding its scope beyond the existing three members. Ukraine, here again, is the main target. The Ukrainian Economy Minister, Vasyl Tsushko, announced in December 2010 that Ukraine will act as an observer in the negotiations between Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan on the creation of a Customs Union.^[24] He emphasized that “it is interesting for us to see what they are discussing there.” According to him, “Ukraine is not yet considering participating in the customs union.” It would be “primarily interested in [the] creation of a free trade zone within the Commonwealth of Independent States.”^[25] But Russia is constantly raising its pressure on the Ukrainian government. In July 2012 Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said that Kiev and Moscow “were discussing, are discussing, and will continue to discuss” the question of Ukraine’s joining of the Customs Union, a question, he said, that was “directly connected with national interests.”^[26] Yanukovych was also discussing with the EU. After six years of negotiations he was expected to sign an Association Agreement with the EU during the Eastern Partnership summit, organized on November 28–29, 2013, in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. At the last minute, however, he refused to sign and turned to Moscow. Putin had offered $15 billion in loans and an important discount in the price of imported gas. Yanukovych’s U-turn led to massive demonstrations in the center of Kiev.