Only if President Yanukovych frees Yulia Tymoshenko.
Something happened in Ukraine a week ago that didn’t make the
news here, but which Americans should care about.
In Kyiv, President Viktor Yanukovych pardoned former Interior
Minister Yuri Lutsenko, who had been convicted of “abuse of power”
in 2010. This is a step toward completion of a stalled European
Union-Ukraine Association Agreement which would open up EU markets
to Ukrainian exports — a great potential boon to the country’s
economy. Close Ukrainian ties to the EU can also be seen as a proxy
for stronger, broader ties between the United States and this
strategic country that lies between the West and Russia.
