It was meant to sound conciliatory: Speaking in Brussels after an adversarial EU-Russia summit that was heavily focused on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it didn’t matter to him who ruled the former Soviet republic next door.
Russia, he said, would not revoke a $15-billion (U.S.) loan it had offered Ukraine last month. Nor would Russia renegotiate the discounted price of natural gas that it supplies its neighbour, even if the pro-European opposition came to power in Kiev. The bailout package, Mr. Putin said, was intended to “support the people of Ukraine, not the government.”
