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Abstract: Ukraine and Moldova are of interest for both the EU and for Russia, which is why they are caught up in the latter's geopolitical and geostrategic games. EU implementation in the area would entail a limitation of Russia's political, economic and military influence. Since, at the end of 2013, Moldova and Ukraine wanted to finalize the process of political association and economic integration in the EU, the west-bound trend is obvious. If Moldova managed to reach its objectives, in Ukraine, Moscow's pressure has been strong enough to determine president Yanukovych not to follow the normal course of action. The popular support for joining the EU has generated a state of instability and uncertainty in Kiev.
Keywords: geopolitical game, EU, Russia, integration, instability
The existing disagreement between Ukraine and Russia has created a conflict area on Romania's eastern border. The stakes are related to the maintenance or expansion of influence in the Crimean Peninsula, as Ukraine has manifested an interest in implementing a democratic, western regime, which Moscow views as a personal loss. Romania has neither interests in the area, nor obligations to any party involved in the conflict, but the seriousness of the situation and the closeness to national borders requires careful monitoring of the events.
Ukraine and Moldova are on the eastern border of the EU and NATO. Both states were part of the USSR, and after 1991 remained under Russian influence. Both states have manifested an interest in joining the EU and implicitly adhering to democratic values. The road so far has been quite strenuous. The local political factors have been influenced in their decisions by threats or promises from Kremlin. Many solutions were adopted under street pressure.
At the end of the `80s, Moldova felt the need for change. People were engaged in a "political whirlpool," debating matters related to mother tongue statute, the right to self- governance and self-determination. While in 1989 the USSR experienced a powerful outburst of discontent which materialized in street protests, often ethnically based, the authorities in Chi?in?u did not manage to fight the separatist movement in Tiraspol, backed by the Russian and Ukrainian military, and they lost Transnistria.1
In 1991, Moldova proclaimed its independence. The shift to a democratic regime was fraught with...