NEWSWATCH: “Dutch referendum on Ukraine: A hard Dutch kick: Voting down the EU’s treaty with Ukraine would hand Vladimir Putin a win.” – The Economist
… Yanukovych … succumbed to Russian pressure and renounced an association agreement with the European Union that he and his predecessors had spent six years negotiating. Many Ukrainians thought their country’s best hope for transforming itself from a corrupt gangster state into an orderly democracy … had been sacrificed on the orders of … Putin …. Thousands set up camp … chanting “Ukraine is Europe”. Police attacked, touching off … protest and violence that ended in … Yanukovych’s flight to Russia, a new government-and the signing of the Ukraine-EU agreement. … Putin then sent troops into Ukraine to win back Russian influence by stealth and force. … seizing Crimea, splitting off a few rebel areas and embittering Ukrainians’ once-warm feelings towards Russia. Yet the Ukraine-EU association agreement is in trouble again ….
* * * For Ukraine, the economic promise of the deal is immense. For the Dutch, the reason to ratify it is to deny … Putin the fulfilment of his wish for a corrupt and anti-European Ukraine. … The Dutch learned better than any other country what such chaos can mean, when scores of their countrymen were killed … in the downing of flight MH-17. …