Moscow is openly unhappy with the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, which came into effect starting on January 1, 2016. Consequently, Russia has slapped an embargo on Ukrainian food and complicated the transit of Ukrainian goods across Russian territory. Ukraine responded with similar measures and plans to use its relations with the South Caucasus countries and Belarus to minimize the consequences of the trade war with Russia. Furthermore, Ukraine, which used to overwhelmingly depend on Russian natural gas, has now entirely stopped buying this important resource from Gazprom.
On December 16, Russian …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation