The price of Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich’s turn to Moscow away from a long-negotiated political and trade deal with Europe has been massive street protests that have surrounded government buildings.  But after meetings with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, we’ve learned what Ukraine gets out of it.

Putin says Russia will invest A$16.8 billion from one of its sovereign wealth funds in Ukrainian government securities and cut the price of natural gas it charges its neighbor by about a third.

“Considering the problems of the Ukrainian economy linked to the world financial crisis, and to support the budget of the Ukrainian government, the Russian government decided to place part of its reserves from the National Wellbeing Fund in Ukrainian state securities,” Putin said after a meeting with Yanukovich in Moscow.

Yanukovich gets cheap gas and cash, but he held out and did agree to join Putin’s proposed customs union between former Soviet nations. 

Ukraine relies on imports of Russian gas.  And industries in the eastern part of the country have a different view of Moscow than the street protesters in Kiev.  They need Russian gas to operate, and then 75 percent of Ukraine's engineering exports go to Russia.