Many observers were casting doubts about the existence of a strategic partnership between Russia and the European Union long before the annexation of Crimea and the subsequent strained relations between the two blocs. Nevertheless, the main challenge of this article is to prove that there was indeed a positive effect regarding the strategic partnership on bilateral trading – together with such factors as the growth of the Russian and EU GDPs per capita, the devaluation of the Russian currency and the oil price increase – by applying the Gravity Model. Based on this model, it was also confirmed that there was a negative effect of the geographical distance and sanctions between parties on the EU–Russia trade flow. Moreover, we tried to predict by means of the Error Correction Models how EU–Russia bilateral trade would have changed according to a scenario wherein the parties continued being strategic partners, and had the sanctions not been imposed. As such, and by the method described, not only was it empirically confirmed that the major partners would have received the most benefit from the strategic partnership with Russia but even Russia’s smaller trading partners are incurring significant welfare losses from sanctions, along with Russia itself.

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Depopulated rural or post-industrial areas, which are often low-income with fewer job opportunities, represent an open challenge for the European Union. Sharp demographic declines especially in Eastern and Southern Europe, due to the intra-EU migration of younger, skilled workers from these areas have become a serious obstacle to the sustainable development of many EU lower-income regions. The European Parliament highlights the gap in ICT connectivity among other reasons.  This paper aims to provide empirical evidence, by applying Panel Data Analysis, that digitalisation of European NUTS-2 regions with lower incomes via Broadband Access may contribute to reversing negative demographic trends.

After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, many EU–Russia projects such as the concept of Strategic Partnerships, negotiations on the New Basic Agreement, and the abolishment of visa regime, among other important issues, were suspended. On top of that, the parties involved imposed mutual sanctions which seriously damaged bilateral trade relationships. The present article aims to analyse EU–Russia bilateral trade under the sanctions and low oil prices together with such factors as the growth of Russian and the EU’s GDPs per capita, geographical distance between parties and devaluation of Russian currency by applying a gravity model. Moreover, the model allows us to carry out simulations of circumstances as they would likely have unfolded had the sanctions not been imposed and if oil prices had remained at a reasonable level.