Your article about Ukraine is right on the money (“Yulia Tymoshenko’s Trials,” October 15, 2011). Tymoshenko’s trial, in which she got seven years and an enormous fine, is purely political. Viktor Yanukovych, the president, is positioning himself for the upcoming talks with the European Union and for his future talks with Vladimir Putin, who is due to win the presidential elections in Russia next year. Putin wants Ukraine as a part of his plan for a new Eurasian union to rival the European one. He would be rather cross if the former member of the Soviet Union got closer to Europe, though. Yanukovych is trying to see what he could get from Brussels, and he has Tymoshenko as an ace up his sleeve. He can release her whenever he wishes. In short, the picture is perfectly clear. The only thing that is missing is Putin’s counterpart in the European Union. Would that be Herman van Rompuy? Or perhaps Cathy Ashton? The way things look at the moment, Ukraine is going the Eurasian way.