FX.co ★ Ukraine tries to keep a foot in both worlds

Ukraine’s signing of an association agreement with the European Union was followed by curious comments of the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. He is convinced the agreement is no disaster for Russia, but underlines that the neighboring country will not be able to join the Customs Union as a full-fledged member. “It seems Ukraine is trying to be in two places at once,” Mr Medvedev was quoted as saying. The prime minister believes the economic cooperation between the two nations will run on, however the volume of economic interaction will be shrinking. On the one hand, Russia stressed its position regarding Ukraine’s decision is not an ultimatum. Yet, the Kremlin noticed that the membership of both unions at the same time is simply impossible. The government of Ukraine disregarded these, so to say, threats. It is not going to give up the plans to sign the EU deal. By the way, the Ukrainian ministers approved a draft agreement with the EU, which includes a free trade pact. The document is to be signed at an EU summit on November 28-29 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The only payback that might be expected from the Customs Union is closing its markets for Ukrainian manufacturers, which will officially be labelled as protection of the economic interests. In fact, such whims of the Russian government may leave the national population without access to high-quality and yet inexpensive Ukrainian goods.