Europe News

Ukraine President Eyes Own Future as He Pivots

Choice of Moscow Over EU Could Help Yanukovych in 2015

Dec. 26, 2013 7:49 p.m. ET

KIEV—President Viktor Yanukovych had built his political career on closer ties with Russia, so when he gathered members of his party in a Kiev cinema in September to explain why he had decided to go ahead with a deal with the European Union that Moscow bitterly opposed, some in the crowd were angry.

But while the 63-year-old political survivor faced down dissenters, insisting that there was no turning back on closer trade and...

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