How trade policy can help settle the Ukraine crisis

The protests which ultimately led to the fall of Viktor Yanukovych’s government in Ukraine in 2014 began after the country failed to sign a trade agreement with the EU. But could trade policy also offer a way out of the crisis? Robert Basedow writes that while talk of establishing a free trade area ‘from Lisbon to Vladivostok’ is unrealistic in the short-term, the EU should nevertheless pursue a strategy focused on evenly reducing trade barriers in the Eurasian space.