Bloomberg: Ukraine protesters want answers on Russia's $15 billion in aid - Dec. 18, 2013

Bloomberg: Ukraine protesters want answers on Russia’s $15 billion in aid

Published Dec. 18, 2013 at 8:41 am

Protesters fly a Ukrainian flag on Independence Square in central Kiev as people gather for an opposition rally on December 17, 2013. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to buy $15 billion of Ukrainian bonds and slash its gas bill by a third to prop up the embattled Kiev government as it battles mass protests over the rejection of a historic EU pact. Tens of thousands of pro-EU protesters flocked to Independence Square in the heart of Kiev after the talks between Putin and President Viktor Yanukovych to denounce what they saw as surrender of Ukrainian sovereignty to Russia. AFP PHOTO/ GENYA SAVILOV

Photo by AFP

Ukrainian anti-government protesters demanded to know what President Viktor Yanukovych had ceded to seal $15 billion of Russian financial aid and a one-third discount on energy imports.

Russia will buy Ukrainian state debt this year and next and will cut the price it charges for natural gas to $268.5 per 1,000 cubic meters, President Vladimir Putin said after meeting Yanukovych in Moscow yesterday. The two leaders said they didn’t discuss a Russia-led customs union after speculation Ukraine was close to joining riled pro-European demonstrators in Kiev.

Read the story here