Actually, Russia DID offer Ukraine "a better deal". Yanukovych had at first promised to move toward EU membership, but when he read "the fine print" of what was required, he realised that he would have to cut pensions, eliminate energy subsidies and other social programs upon which many Ukrainians depended, and implement a lot of neoliberal policies that the Ukrainian people would have hated. He would have committed political suicide by taking the EU deal. Putin offered him a better deal, and he took it.

My God, have you not been paying attention? That was what started the whole Maidan protests - the people thought they had been hoodwinked, when in reality, it was just "a better deal" that Putin offered.

That's when the West decided to stage a coup to get rid of Yanukovych and replace him with pro-Western Neocons and Nazis.