Events in Ukraine have been taking an increasingly schizophrenic and criminal turn and Hamlet’s eternal question seems to loom large over the country. Let us not forget that the dichotomy in Hamlet’s words brought about many deaths.

“EU or Russia?” This is the question the administration and the people of this territorially large and rich in mineral resources country have been asking themselves. Tens of thousands of protestors gathered in Kiev on Sunday for the 10^th “Narodno veche” (National Assembly) – the street parliament organized by the opposition. The Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU is now on high counterterrorism alert, Interfax reported. The reason is Friday’s attempted hijacking of an airplane and its diversion to Sochi. Artem Koslov, who was reportedly drunk, stated he wanted to be taken to Presidents Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yanukovych whose hands were steeped in blood.

According to the SBU’s website there have been bomb threats to high-risk facilities – nuclear and hydroelectric power plants as well as international airports, railway stations, bus stations and major pipelines.

To prevent Ukraine from joining the EU - which doesn’t know what to do with this immense territory - Russia paid money. Well, it paid up, but… it didn’t pay! For now, “Mother Russia” is not dispensing the second tranche of the 2 billion USD under the loan, negotiated with Ukraine, the Bulgarian National Radio reports. Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov explained there was no set schedule for the transfer of the money and Moscow was waiting for Kiev to honour the gas commitments it has assumed. The money transfer has no direct bearing on the payments to Naftogaz of Ukraine but the company is state-owned and must comply with the commitments the state has assumed.

The Ukrainian authorities waited for the tranche until the end of January. Another condition the Kremlin set down was the return of stability in the country. Moscow offered Kiev a loan of 15 billion USD provided it does not sign an agreement with the EU. The sum given so far is 3 billion.

Instead of money, an adviser to President Putin suggested the division of Ukraine, Kommersant newspaper wrote. According to Vladimir Glazev what the country needs is federalization and the convergence of its Southeastern portion with the Customs Union created by Russia. The authorities in Kiev will be making a mistake if they postpone the resolution of the crisis by force, he adds. The opposition fears just that and says that the foundations have been laid with President Yanukovych’s stated intention of appointing Andrey Klyuev Head of the Presidential Administration. Viktor Yanukovych made this decision after a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Sochi last Friday.

But let us see what events look like from overseas. In 2013 USA poured more than 100 million USD into Ukraine as “assistance for putting through reforms necessary for European integration”. According to Supreme Rada MP Vadim Koleshichenko “over the past 10 years up to 10 billion dollars has been pumped into Ukraine for the establishment of the effect of democracy.” The December 2013 Atlantic Data on Foreign Influence in Ukraine indicate that the chief investor was and still is USA. The American “dough” is allocated by the federal administration bodies – the US Agency for International Development, which has an annual budget of up to 100 million USD, the US State Department, the Peace Corps, the National Employment Agency etc.

Moreover, in his book War in the Dark Udo Ulfkotte asserts that the latter-day foundations of the civic resistance in Ukraine were laid by former Director of Security for CIA Charles W. Kane who has a great deal of experience in organizing the “colour revolutions” that broke out in Ukraine as far back as 1996 when he helped prepare the opposition groups for a peaceful coup d'état. 

“But what is most intriguing is what US ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt said - that Ukraine will sign an association agreement with EU, as if this was up to him and not the administration of Ukraine. But the administration has already made the decision not to sign such an unnatural agreement because it is a document leading to disaster,” said Vladimir Putin’s adviser Vladimir Glazev.

“Ukrainian but also international law describes what is happening as an attempted coup; the fact that the situation is schizophrenic is due to the fact that for some reason everyone is afraid to call things by their real names,” Glazev says. The Presidential adviser states further that the “schizophrenic situation’ and the unwillingness of the two sides to negotiate an accord before disaster sets in, is in part due to the fact that the authorities are afraid that the West and above all USA will blacklist President Yanukovych and his family and will block his assets and accounts and confiscate his property.

“What is more they even threatened him (the International tribunal in the Hague). The authorities go in fear of their billions and have been trying to keep going without any losses, and that only makes matters worse,” says the adviser to the Russian President.

If victory was to go to the street opposition which has no strategy, no concrete political platform and no leader that stands out and could lead the country at a time of political crisis, then the republic could never be e reliable partner to the EU even in some distant future. It is highly doubtful that any administration with a Maidana ideology could adequately implement the EU directives.

And if Europe will have to deal with the neo-Nazi union Freedom which regards itself as the ideological heir to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – an organization that collaborated with the Nazis during World War II – how does this comply with the European democratic values?

English version: Milena Daynova