The process of regionalism in the Black Sea Region finds itself on the back burner as key stakeholders prefer to maintain a status quo and control over the course of developments in the region or are increasingly uninterested in the region per se. There is a growing condominium between Russia and Turkey on the need to maintain the status quo coupled with the growing detachment of the European Union and the general disinterest of the United States.

Authoritarian systems do not ensure stability. Instead, they steadily erode the independent institutions and safeguards that guarantee basic justice; ensure government integrity, and responsiveness; and provide for regular, peaceful transfers of power. If the uprisings of the Arab Spring have taught us nothing else, it is that authoritarians that seek to prolong their stays after the point their citizens signal a desire for change, more instability is sure to follow. This reality has significant implications both for the Middle East, as well as Eurasia.

To understand how the eurozone crisis may develop – and how it may affect Ukraine – we first need to understand how the euro got into such a mess in the first place.