Russia Win’s Ukraine But Looses The Big Picture In Vilnius

Russia Win’s Ukraine But Looses The Big Picture In Vilnius

Russia managed to persuade Ukraine into not signing the E.U. proposed collaboration agreement in Vilnius this week but might have lost more than it can imagine in the process. The third E.U. Eastern Partnership is taking place in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania this week.

Russia’s questionable economic sanction on former soviet states like Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine has managed to get some results but analysts ask at what cost. While the Kremlin registered Ukraine’s pulling back from the E.U. alliance as a success, the way they achieved their success didn't win them any fans in Ukraine or other former soviet states.

More so, the deterioration of relations between the E.U. and Russia that seems to have started with Vladimir Putin’s shady third term win has taken another step back with diplomatic relations becoming more and more strained.

While Russia made clear trade threats to all former soviet states, Georgia and Moldova still seem determined to sign the E.U. partnership agreement. Moldova was less influenced by the trade threats as most foreign trade is made with E.U member states. The same applies with Georgia, whose new government, although less dramatic in the anti-Russian rhetoric, still bases its foreign trade with E.U. member countries.

Analysts, both Russian and foreign say that that Russia’s "bully” approach to keeping it’s former soviet colonies close does more harm than good, and can lead to a lot of resentment both from the E.U. and from the very countries they are trying to persuade.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday November 30 2013, 3:41 AM EST. Ref: Washington Post. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0