Economic factor in the current Russian-Ukrainian relations

The article researches the economic factor in the Russian-Ukrainian relations after 2014 as an instrument to get along with Ukraine. The Russian-Ukrainian relations worsened sharply after the West powers-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. The article analyzes the Ukrainian economic indicators and compares them for each region of the country. It is showed that the Eastern and Southern Ukrainian regions are main industry drivers of the country. Their output was aimed at the Russian market. Today various sectors of heavy industry in Ukraine are going through tough times. There is a decrease of volume of trade with Russia and this market has not been changed to the European one despite economic association with the EU signed in 2014. At the same time, Kiev has huge debts to the West creditors and the West powers put forward demands to Ukraine in economic as well as political spheres. The Ukrainian authorities provides the escalation of rhetoric towards Moscow inspite of their evident interest to Russia as an economic partner. Russia is interested in mending ties and the development of relations with Ukraine in various sectors. Under appropriate conditions, the potential of economic interaction between the two counties can be considered as a factor to build a political dialog on the difficult issues of the current relations. The development of economic interaction with the Ukrainian regional industry can be a potentially promising path to mend gradually the interaction in other spheres at the regional level, including humanitarian sphere and trans-regional political interaction. First of all the Eastern and Southern Ukrainian regions can be considered from this point of view as their inhabitants have close cultural patterns with many Russians, based on the common Russian language, history and religion.