How many other countries have had revolutions over trade deals like the Ukraine?

[yurbud]

At best, a little more than half the people there supported the deal offered by the European Union, and Russia offered a non-exclusive deal that would have allowed ties with Europe as well.

I'm not sure why any of them want to join given how the EU is treating poorer countries with austerity and "structural adjustments" that make the lives of average citizens far worse.

Why didn't we have revolutions over NAFTA, CAFTA, or have one over the coming TPP?

Didn't those trade deals, as bad as they were for average people, mostly get debated by policy wonks and everyone else went about their business not even aware of the negotiations or even their passage?

[GeorgeGist]

1. The new guy likes it Greek style.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

2. If you read actual news sources--this is not over "trade deals"

Was Yakunovich's rejection of possible EU membership and acceptance of Russia's "no questions asked billions" part of it? Certainly. But this is about much more than that.

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. It wasn't about a trade deal, it was about the antidemocratic corruption of the government

the trade deal was a proximate cause. People seem to be forgetting that Yanukovych imprisoned political opponents and looted the country on an extensive scale and engaged in rampant cronyism and deliberate weakening of democratic institutions and then in brutal attempts to suppress protest. Ask someone like Yulia Tymoshenko what she thinks it was about.

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/mar/01/ukraine-haze-propaganda/

[okaawhatever]

4. How EU treats poorer countries? Problem with Ukraine is they see how Poland has done in the EU

and they probably know that Greece's problems were largely due to Greece misrepresenting their economic data. Truth is, had the real numbers been presented for EU membership Greece wouldn't have been allowed to join. That being said, the IMF and EU are revisiting their austerity policies. How about the countries that have joined Russia's trade bloc, how are they doing? Belarus signed over the rights to their pipelines to Russia.

The about face on the EU deal flew in the face of the democratic process. It's what the majority of citizens wanted and the government had promised it would do when elected. If the Russia deal was so good why didn't Putin make a case for it and let the people decide? Yanukovych went against the will of his people. He rejected a deal the country had been working on for years, and changed overnight. It wasn't just the trade deal, it was the government being corrupt and misleading it's citizens.