Ukraine and the European Union

Yesterday, the last step was taken. Ukraine and Moldova are now in final negotiations to join the European Union. This started at the Revolution of Dignity at the Maidan in 2014. This is some of CNN's take on this:

Earlier at the EU Council, member states agreed to begin so-called accession talks with Ukraine, nearly two years after it was accepted as a candidate state. Ukraine has held ambitions to join the EU for more than a decade.

Orban — whose government has always been by far the closest ally of the Kremlin in the EU — said he had not participated in the discussions about accession talks in order for the other member states to make the decision.

Orban on Thursday called the announcement that Ukraine was beginning accession negotiations “a completely senseless, irrational and incorrect decision,” adding that his country “did not participate in the decision today.”

Earlier this week, Orban claimed that Ukraine still needed to meet three of the seven conditions necessary to greenlight accession talks and, therefore, said there was no current reason to negotiate EU membership for Ukraine.

Ukraine is at the borderlands between Asia and Europe. She chose to go towards Europe and has worked for this since 2014. So have Moldova and Georgia.

The sands just shifted. One of the unstated reasons for the Russian invasion of these three countries is to prevent them from turning away from Russia.

They are. They are all choosing the European path. It is a defeat of the strategic goals of the Federation. Yes, a few Russians were angry. However, they are now facing the consequences of this adventure.

It’s not just the casualties or lack of rotation from the front. We are starting to see the economic effects in their daily lives.

These are connected to what looks like an inflationary spiral:

The Russian government increased the down payment on preferential mortgages at 8% per annum to 30% from 20%.

Getting loans for homes will become nearly impossible. Then, there is the increase in the basis rate from the central bank:

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation increased the key rate by 1 percentage point…