Comments on signing the Agreement with the EU.
Keith Savard (Milken Institute, U.S.): “Russia wants to have a seat at the table. They don’t want to be pushed aside; I don’t know how else to explain the fuss they are making over this agreement.”
Matthew Rojansky (Kennan Institute, U.S.) Putin might be concerned that Ukraine’s EU association will allow Kiev to import duty-free European manufactured goods, then re-export them to Russia at lower prices than Russia’s inefficient manufacturers charge. In whole, Russia and Ukraine are too economically intertwined to provoke a full-fledged trade war. “Russia is not going away, and Ukraine is not going to be Germany tomorrow, or even in 20 years,” said Rojansky, who predicted that Putin and Poroshenko would have to come to some mutually beneficial accommodation, if they haven’t already.” “They will remain interlinked for the foreseeable future,” he said. “These are two economies that are linked at the hip.”
www.latimes.com
The former Georgia’s President thinks the integration process will be long and hard: “RU should make reforms to add new potential members. Unfortunately, I can’t remember that Barroso’s potential successor – Jean-Claude Juncker – demonstrates any interest towards Eastern European countries. I am afraid after all these announcements, the train with Juncker as the captain will lessen the speed.”
www.letemps.ch
Putin’s friend has been appointed as the chairman of the Supervisory Board of “OIAG” state holding. “On Thursday Austrian Österreichische Industrieholding AG (ÖIAG) supervisory board has appointed Siegfried Wolf as the new Chairman.” As Die Presse writes, he considers “as a feisty and experienced manager”, but in Austria he’s been criticized for “having close relationship with President Vladimir Putin”.
diepresse.com
“Level three” measures: Italian, German and US business groups are against. “Italy leads calls to slow sanctions against Russia” informs Financial Times in its headline. “Meanwhile, US and German try to broaden the scope of western sanctions against Russia,” journalists underline.
www.ft.com
