Barroso misses the main story: It is not only about the Ukrainian opposition versus the Ukrainian authorities, but also about Russia versus Ukraine. In that conflict, the EU needs to make a stance finally. Without the recent Russian pressure, Ukraine would have signed and Armenia initialed their Association Agreements at Vilnius. The Russian budget and economy are dependent on constant EU payments for Russian gas and oil. The EU could easily soften Moscows pressure on Kyiv by simply announcing that it would introduce restrictions to EU-Russian trade proportionate to possible Russian trade sanctions against Ukraine. There are now enough opportunities to get the energy that the EU needs elsewhere (reserves, LNG, shale gas, Norway etc.). Is that so difficult to understand and do? Andreas Umland foreignpolicyjournal/2013/11/22/the-west-and-the-evolving-russian-ukrainian-trade-war/
Posted on: Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:42:59 +0000
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