Certainly, Russia has been determined to keep Ukraine out of the Western camp. Of all the ex-Soviet states Ukraine is the one closest to Russia, historically, culturally and economically. The relationship, with its intimacies and tensions, is not unlike that between England and Scotland. Hence the £9 billion. But that does not mean, as many commentators have suggested, that Vladimir Putin has been pushing Mr Yanukovych in the direction of brutal repression.