Everyone Loses

CHRONOLOGY

15 March 1988 — Mikhail Gorbachev repudiates Brezhnev Doctrine justifying Soviet dominance over East Central Europe

9 November 1989 — Fall of Berlin Wall

3 October 1990 — Unification of East and West Germany

19 November 1990 — CFE and Charter of Paris for a New Europe signed at CSCE

28 June 1991 — COMECON disbanded

1 July 1991 — Warsaw Pact disbanded

21 August 1991 — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania declare independence from USSR

8 December 1991 — Belavezha Accords signed, declaring end of USSR and establishment of CIS

25 December 1991 — Gorbachev resigns as president of Soviet Union

26 December 1991 — Official dissolution of Soviet Union

15 May 1992 — Collective Security Treaty (Tashkent Treaty) signed by Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

24 June 1992 — Moscow brokers end to war between Georgians and South Ossetians

21 July 1992 — Ceasefire to end conflict in Moldova’s Transnistria province

21–22 June 1993 — Three Copenhagen Criteria for enlargement of the EU adopted at European Council in Copenhagen

10 January 1994 — NATO PfP programme launched

14 May 1994 — Moscow brokers end to war between Georgians and Abkhaz

5 December 1994 — Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances for Ukraine signed by Russia, US and UK

1 January 1995 — CSCE renamed OSCE

27 May 1997 — NATO–Russia Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security signed

31 May 1997 — Friendship treaty signed by Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma

10 October 1997 — Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova form GUAM consultative forum

12 March 1999 — Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO

19 November 1999 — A/CFE signed at Istanbul summit of OSCE

31 December 1999 — Yeltsin resigns, Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of Russia

26 March 2000 — Putin elected president

7 October 2002 — Establishment of CSTO

23 November 2003 — Eduard Shevardnadze resigns as Georgian president, in the culminating moment of Rose Revolution

24 November 2003 — President Vladimir Voronin of Moldova scuttles ‘Kozak Memorandum’ plan for resolving the Transnistria dispute.

29 March 2004 — Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO

1 May 2004 — Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia join EU

12 May 2004 — European Neighbourhood Policy announced

28 December 2004 — Viktor Yushchenko elected president of Ukraine in run-off prompted by Orange Revolution protests

3 April 2005 — Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan forces resignation of president Askar Akaev

10 May 2005 — Russia and EU sign framework documents for four ‘Common Spaces’

31 December 2005 — First Russia–Ukraine gas war begins

12 December 2007 — Putin suspends implementation of CFE agreement

2 March 2008 — Dmitry Medvedev elected president of Russia

2–4 April 2008 — NATO Bucharest summit communiqué declares Georgia and Ukraine ‘will become’ members of Alliance

5 June 2008 — Medvedev calls for new European security treaty

8–12 August 2008 — Russia–Georgia war

26 August 2008 — Russia recognises independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia

31 December 2008 — Second Russia–Ukraine gas war begins

7 May 2009 — Launch of EU Eastern Partnership initiative

9 June 2009 — Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus announce formation of Customs Union

29 November 2009 — Russia publishes draft European Security Treaty

25 February 2010 — Viktor Yanukovych elected president of Ukraine

15 April 2010 — President Kurmanbek Bakiev ousted in Kyrgyzstan

21 April 2010 — Yanukovych signs 25-year extension of lease on Russian Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea in return for discounted gas price

31 May 2010 — Russia and EU launch Partnership for Modernization

20 November 2010 — NATO–Russia Council agrees to ‘work towards achieving a true strategic and modernised partnership’ at Lisbon summit

4 March 2012 — Putin elected to third term as president of Russia

30 March 2012 — Ukraine and EU initial AA

3 September 2013 — President Serzh Sargsyan announces Armenia will scrap AA and join EEU

21 November 2013 — Ukrainian government suspends preparations for AA with EU

28–29 November 2013 — At EU Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, Yanukovych refuses to sign AA despite intense pressure from EU leaders

30 November 2013 — Police crack down on students demonstrating in Kyiv against decision not to sign AA

17 December 2013 — Putin promises US$15bn in credits to Ukraine and cut in the gas price by one-third

18–20 February 2014 — Dozens of protesters and police killed in bloodiest days of the Maidan Revolution

21 February 2014 — Yanukovych and three opposition leaders sign agreement calling for government of national unity, constitutional reform and new presidential election

22 February 2014 — Yanukovych flees Kyiv; Verkhovna Rada votes to remove him from office

25–28 February 2014 — Russian reinforcements arrive in Crimea and fan out across the peninsula

1 March 2014 — Putin obtains formal approval from upper house of parliament to deploy military forces on Ukrainian territory

15 March 2014 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov presents US Secretary of State John Kerry with draft ‘Friends of Ukraine’ action plan

16 March 2014 — Contested plebiscite held in Crimea; overwhelming majority of voters said to support unification with Russia

17 March 2014 — US and EU enact sanctions against Russia

18 March 2014 — Putin delivers blistering speech denouncing Western foreign policy and announcing the ‘reunification’ of Crimea with Russia

15 April 2014 — Ukrainian government launches ‘anti-terrorist operation’ against Russia-backed anti-Maidan protesters who had taken up arms and seized administrative buildings in southern and eastern Ukraine

25 May 2014 — Petro Poroshenko elected president of Ukraine

27 June 2014 — Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine sign AAs with EU

16 July 2014 — US Treasury Department implements sanctions on Russia’s financial, defence and energy sectors

17 July 2014 — Downing of Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over the Donbas

7 August 2014 — Russia retaliates against sanctions with bans on imports of agricultural goods and foodstuffs

2 September 2014 — Separatist counter-offensive, backed by Russia, ends in major Ukrainian defeat at Ilovaisk

5 September 2014 — Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the DNR and LNR sign ceasefire in Minsk, Belarus (‘Minsk I’)

1 January 2015 — EEU launched

14 January–20 February 2015 — Second Russian direct military intervention ends in capture of Debaltseve

12 February 2015 — Angela Merkel, François Hollande, Putin and Poroshenko agree on second peace plan (‘Minsk II’)

12 August 2015 — Kyrgyzstan joins EEU

21 December 2015 — Russia–Ukraine–EU trade talks break down in acrimony

1 January 2016 — Ukrainian DCFTA goes into effect; Russia suspends CIS trade preferences for Ukraine in retaliation