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They can be part of both markets.

The only problem is corruption, not markets. Ukraine's revolution was against corruption, human rights, more democracy, EU is last. Russia wants just to protect the assets of the past governments. Money and corruption, they don't care about anything else.

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No, Russia cares about access to the Black Sea.

Access to the Black Sea and gas pipelines to Europe. Without those pipelines, the Russian economy would tank in a minute and the country would collapse back to the bad old '90s.

They have plenty of access to the black sea. 3/4 of the east side of it is on their side.

The only decent port on Russian territory is Novorossiysk. That and Sevastopol are the the Russian Navy's only warm water ports.

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