Since an uprising unseated the pro-Russian regime of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, relations between Kyiv and Moscow have gone from bad to worse. Responding to a recent ban of Ukrainian imports and seeking a way to reach post-Soviet Central Asian states and East Asia without transiting Russia, on January 15 Ukraine dispatched a 30-car container train from Illichivsk along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) on a test journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to China, utilizing ferries across the Caspian and Black Seas. While Ukraine’s initial expectations for the route are modest, in time it could …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation
