In 2013, Yanukovych was about to sign the association agreement with the European Union when the Russians suddenly realized that it would shut Ukraine out of the Eurasian Economic Union. Moscow raised the ante—and the pressure. It was “either/or.” Yanukovych backed out of the EU agreement, his exit lubricated by a $15 billion loan from Moscow. Ukrainians were enraged. In late 2013, half a million flooded into Maidan Square in Kyiv to protest the abandonment of the European Union agreement and against the rampant corruption and Russian influence.
