When Viktor Yanukovich became Ukraine's president in 2010, many observers feared the former Soviet republic was destined to return to Moscow's orbit. Yanukovych—long seen as Russian President Vladimir Putin's man in Kyiv—quickly extended the lease on Russia's naval base at Sevastapol. And it wasn't long into his presidency that his old political rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, was tried and imprisoned on corruption charges that smacked of the selective prosecutions so common in modern Russia.
Tymoshenko remains in prison, but the comradeship between the two presidents soured long ago. On a visit last year to Crimea, Mr. Putin kept his Ukrainian host waiting for four hours while he participated in a motorcycle tour of the peninsula. More recently, an angry feud has erupted thanks to a furious dispute involving chocolate, of all things.
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