Putin looks to the Dutch for a Ukraine boost

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, ducked out from campaigning hard for a yes vote. “He fears that he has little to gain from leading [the yes campaign]. He faces general elections in spring 2017, and his party is neck-and-neck with Geert Wilders’s right-wing populist Freedom Party in the race to become the country’s largest [in the Dutch parliament],” argued Rem Korteweg of the Centre for European Reform.

Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy is also divided over the issue. "If [Rutte] is too pro-European, he will alienate more Euroskeptic voters. If he is too critical of the EU and the agreement with Ukraine, it will complicate his relations with the rest of Europe," Korteweg added.