Russia will take “defensive measures” if AAs harms trade

Russia has shown its first reaction following Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova signing the Association Agreement (AA) with the European Union (EU) earlier today.

Press Attaché for the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov said signing the EU agreement was a sovereign right of these three countries but Russia would take defensive measures if these documents had a negative impact on the Russian market.

"The President has said multiple times that everything would depend on ratification and realization of these documents,” Peskov said.

"The matter is not the documents themselves. The matter is how these documents will be reflected on our market. In case of a negative reflection, we will take measures.”

Earlier today Russia cancelled Air Moldova flights between Moscow and Chisinau. Experts believed this was a form of "new blackmail” from Moscow to Chisinau in response to the country signing the AA.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke about "defensive measures” Russia would take if the AAs had a negative reflection on Russia.

"As soon as the AA comes into force, we will analyze whether it adversely affects the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] free trade zone [and if it does] Russia will take defensive steps on those conditions, on which we have joined the World Trade Organization (WTO),” Lavrov said on Thursday.

Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova signed the EU Association Agreements this morning.