WI: Euromaidan fails?

Ukraine would continue to be very unstable past early 2014. As it was, the president's position had became untenable due to his actions by the time he fled Ukraine for Russia. ITTL, after using overt military force against the opposition Yanukovych only could hold on to power with implicit if not explicit Russian support, and practically he would become a Russian puppet.

I agree with @Changundramon above: if Yanukovych and the Party of Regions do not rig the next (parliamentary and presidential) elections, the pro-Western parties would very likely sweep to power. Thus, in comparison to what is the Russian/pro-Russian party line IOTL about Ukraine being run by "Kievan Fascists", ITTL it might be rather ironically run by an illiberal (if not outright authoritarian) pro-Russian regime, one with blood on its hands and one that is continually ready to use political suppression of the opposition as well as outright violence to stay in power.

Personally, as a matter of fact, I don't think Yanukovych would have had the stomach for this. My reading of him is that he was "merely" a corrupt career politician, not a potential authoritarian strongman.
 
Corrupt he was, and the most iconic image I've seen, from the time of his ousting was the golden toilet he had. Sickening. His power base were east-Ukrainian oligarchs, but the pro-West side has theirs, too.
 
They [Euromaiden] would go down in history with the moral high ground intact, probably remembered & romanticized in the same vein as the failed Hungarian revolt of 1956 (you know, mostly forgotten about but if remembered would be rather positively), rather than much more morally grey collection of various groups that they are known nowadays (like, seriously Azov? Can you at least not post pics of yourselves posed with Nazi flags on the internet?* It makes it so much harder to construct that underdog narrative).

*of course extreme accusations need evidence to back it up, so...
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6qXNSO6fbUs/VHcOdfzCIaI/AAAAAAAAYE8/28I1sNymNTM/s1600/oYSPOCYhtB0.jpg
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2016...egy-and-future-of-ukraines-leading-neo-nazis/

That being said I acknowledge that all these might be taken out of context, and that the majority of Euromaiden are not represented by these people. However, perception matters, a lot.
 
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