International Business Times Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Resident Senior Fellow Anders Aslund on the airline industry as the latest sanctions battleground between Russia and Ukraine:
The neighboring countries that were both part of the Soviet Union have long had close economic ties. But with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a war pitting Ukrainian forces against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has taken the lives of approximately 8,000 people and displaced 1.4 million, those ties have increasingly frayed. The bold airline move on Ukraine’s part comes after years of economic battles with Russia ranging from fights over fuel to chocolate.
“Russia has pursued a vicious trade war against Ukraine,” said Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank based in Washington. “Ukraine needs to do something to respond.”