The Russian factor has been and remains very important for the entire Kharkov region.
Natalya Shapovalova, an analyst at Carnegie Europe, stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We wanted to explore how the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the Russian factor affected the Kharkov region, how the challenges that faced the region in 2014, and the unsuccessful attempt to establish the separatist Kharkov People's Republic affected the region and its inhabitants. And we realized that the Russian factor for the region was and remains very important. Many local experts told us that we did not have a border before, but now it is closed. What is meant here is that before the conflict there was a very high intensity of ties, and now it has decreased significantly, and at a certain time it reached zero. This affected the economic situation of the region, for which Russia was and remains the main trading partner, although if you look at the numbers, the reduction in economic ties occurred before 2014, and this was also due to the fall in industrial production in the country and the loss of traditional markets. After 2014, this process accelerated significantly,” Shapovalova said.