Erik Berglof, chief economist for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, comments on Ukraine’s position visa vis the EU.  He notes that Poland was a corrupt as Ukraine is now when the Iron Curtain first came down.  Now Poland is three times richer than Ukraine and Poland’s income gap with Western Europe is smaller than it has been since 1500.

Since the EU’s GDP is eight times greater than Russia’s it somewhat surprises that their trade relations continue.   Because both Poland and Ukraine are neighbors and enmeshed in industrial networks with Russia, exports continue.  The difference.  The EU has helped Poland.

The painstaking approximation of EU rules and regulation that helped Poland become a normal European country by the late 1990’s would offer Ukraine the prospect of taming its own demons of bribery, cronyism, and nepotism.