The share of EU countries in total Moldovan imports decreased from 48.33% to 46.61%. Compared to the same period in 2018, imports to Moldova of goods from the EU in January-February 2019 increased by only 0.05% to $ 387.73 million. The largest volumes of imports to Moldova from the EU countries in the first 2 months of 2019 came from Romania, Germany, Italy, Poland and France.
The spread of ideology claiming that Ukraine is not Russia and Ukrainians are not Russians caused the coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014 and the following dramatic events. This same formula (“we are not Russians”) is increasingly popular in Belarus, including among the Belarusian authorities. However, just as Russians and Ukrainians are the same people, Russians and Belarusians are the same people too. Pro-Western nationalistic opposition in Belarus has been working hard to undermine a common cultural and historical space between Belarus and Russia.
This message contains recurring pro-Kremlin narratives about all-Russian nation, a coup d’état in Ukraine and West's plans to realize a 'Ukrainian scenario' in Belarus. The spontaneous onset of massive Euromaidan protests was a reaction of the Ukrainian population to the sudden departure of the President Yanukovych from the Association Agreement with the European Union and to the brutal dispersal of student protest actions on 30 November 2013. The 2014 events cannot be named a coup d'état because after Yanukovych's escape, the new President was elected in free and fair elections. According to the OSCE, "the people of Ukraine had the opportunity to genuinely express their will at the ballot box". The articles claim that Belarusians and Ukrainians are part of Russian people. This is an imperial Russian and Russian irredentist ideology of an "all-Russian nation" aimed at weakening the national identity of Belarusians and Ukrainians as well as their sovereignty. In reality, Ukraine and Belarus are well-defined nation-states with a long history. Both nations preserved language, literature and identity, despite foreign rule for long periods. See other disinformation cases alleging that the coup d'état in Ukraine was caused by the Eastern Partnership, by the European Union or that it was conducted by Ukrainian Nazis, supported by the CIA and Poland.