... progress on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine — will it eventually prove possible for the U.S., Europeans and Russia to wind down trade and other sanctions that generally hurt all sides, even if unevenly?
Given the negative Russian reaction to the EU Eastern Partnership, and the expansion of EU influence into post-Soviet states, including Ukraine and Belarus, what if EU took steps to bring Russia into a new form of EU partnership? Could the EU and Russia forge new trade and monetary arrangements, for example?
Could both Kaliningrad and Crimea become free trade areas, yet under Russian ...
RIAC Report #22, 2015
The Eastern Partnership policy that triggered the Ukrainian crisis has provided ample opportunity to reflect on Russia–EU relations, alongside with evaluating cooperation between Russia and the Visegrad Group countries (also called the Visegrad Four or ...
... was never set of preparing for joining the EU. The important task that was set was to draw as many as possible of the countries facing an integration vector choice into an endless race for criteria of compliance with various European standards.
For Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, the main priority in the Eastern Partnership has been and will continue to be the economy, a desire to resolve their own systemic economic problems with the help of the EU. It cannot be said that the political elite of Ukraine or Moldova failed to understand the essence of the ...
... Ukraine can hold up when winter comes. But I don’t share the rosy anticipations of those who believe that “in winter everything will fall apart.” It’s worth remembering that gas supplies to Ukraine were cut off on June 16. However, Ukraine has somehow managed to cope with this for the past three months.
What do you think of the prospects for the Eastern Partnership?
The Eastern Partnership initiative entails a geopolitical repartition of the whole region. In fact, this program changes boundaries, since it raises the issue of Russia’s genuine borders with the countries of Eastern Europe....
... subject to both Russian and European revisionism. Even if the Friendship Agreement of 1997 between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, allowed the former to harbour its Black Sea fleet in Sebastopol, the concession comported some crucial strategic repercussions.... ..., Poland, which has maintained a vivid strategic interest in the Black Sea and the wider post- Soviet spectrum, advanced the Eastern Partnership. Both initiatives have attempted to solidify strategic and geopolitical interests whether one gazes at Romania’s ...
... as this is the case, tensions will escalate. At one point of time, it looked as if we were getting out of this zero-sum game, though now it seems that we are going back into it. Unfortunately I do not have a solution!
voiceofrussia.com
The Future of Eastern Partnership
Ukraine and Georgia are regularly compared and contrasted. What links these two countries and what does Ukraine mean for Georgia?
Of course Ukraine and Georgia have a lot of in common and they have been very close for different historical reasons. They ...
RIAC experts' comments
The Ukraine crisis has ruptured the talks on Eastern Partnership. We have met Vladislav Belov (RAS Institute for European Studies), Nikolay Kaveshnikov (MGIMO-University), Olga Potyomkina (RAS Institute for European Studies), Kyrill Entin (Higher School of Economics) and András Rácz ...
... of East Central Europe. The Crimean adventure, seasoned with a large amount of the usual disinformation, has occasioned a huge rise in Putin’s popularity — much like the last time in Georgia. He now has the recipe.
But the situation in Ukraine is bound to escalate. It will not come to a Cold War — but it looks like Putin is dead set on testing the limits.
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... unquestionable but who is a realist and not ashamed, or worse, afraid of geopolitics. Someone who will rethink and re-calibrate the Eastern Partnership, acknowledging its geopolitical nature. Someone who can make it fit the new reality shaped partly by a self-assured ... ... foreign policy toolkit.
Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak
Fortunately, a change of EU leadership is looming this summer. Even more so, Ukraine’s crisis has been, to an extent, a foreign policy talent-show.
A great candidate for the job could be the current ...
... contest to Russia. But developments seem to be on the way. In light of the happenings of the past few days, Europe may come out of this better than it would have, had things gone another way.
It has long been known that the talks between the EU and Ukraine should end at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, with the signing of a Free Trade and Association Agreement. It’s been known that such an agreement would be against Russia’s well-articulated geopolitical interests, and that it would much prefer to see ...
