... Customs Union countries (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) accounted for just 18.2 per cent of Transnistria’s export, with Russia making up 17.6 per cent.
At the same time, Russia is the biggest importer to Transnistria (42.6 per cent), followed by Ukraine (17.4 per cent), Belarus (6.5 per cent), Germany (5.7 per cent), Moldova (5 per cent) and Italy (2.8 per cent). Despite the declared course towards “Eurasian integration” and its “reorientation towards the transport market”, the situation changed little in the first eight months of 2014. As ...
... Transnistrians feel a strong attachment to Russia; they voted in the past to join the Russian Federation; and they have recently adopted Russian legislation. The problem is that that land-locked sliver of land along the Dniester River has only two neighbors, Moldova and Ukraine. In better times, Moscow could rely on Kiev keeping Transnistria's eastern border open, and allowing the port of Odessa to function as the unrecognized state's main outlet to the wider world. Now, this arrangement is becoming ever more tenuous....
... immediately after the August war in Georgia, the European Union decided not to become involved in a direct confrontation with Russia. Instead, the European Union decided to strengthen its relations with the six countries to the east, specifically Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
I think we are going to see a similar intensification of the European Union’s ‘Eastern policy’, including its relations with Ukraine. The new Ukrainian government is far more committed to close ...
