Is Russia on a Collision Course with the European Union?

The Kremlin is demonstrating its growing anger with the European Union for encroaching onto the territory of the former Soviet Union, which Moscow considers its exclusive sphere of influence. An important summit between the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries (Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Azerbaijan) next month in Vilnius, Lithuania, may extend EU association agreements and a free trade zone to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova—policies the Kremlin believes are aimed at undermining President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to reintegrate the post-Soviet space by forming a Eurasian Union. Russian officials have been threatening Ukraine with dire consequences, if it signs an association and free trade agreement with the EU in Vilnius. In September 2013, Russian customs officials created havoc at trade crossings between Ukraine and Russia by dramatically slowing the clearance of goods and creating long queues of vehicles. Speaking this week (October 8) to journalists at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Indonesia, Putin insisted, “We will be forced to take defensive measures” if Ukraine opens up to the EU, and “this may harm our economic relations.” Putin reiterated, “Ukraine and Russian are, in fact, one nation” and will eventually come together politically, while Russia will continue to help Ukraine despite the EU.

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