EU-Russia Contemporary Relations: Reasons For Optimism And The Dark Side

by Maria Pitukhina

The article by Maria Pitukhina presents analyses on political environment in the EU-Russia contemporary relationship. On the basis of interdisciplinary approach, an author plays off geopolitics,  political realism, constructivism, a little bit of empire theory and Russian philosophical approach, Kapitsa’s time speeding approach, historic approach,  theory of speech acts. As a whole,  systemic approach is widely applied. The EU-Russia common goals such as economics, energy, sustainability buy a certain amount of goodwill, but to focus on economics and forget about security makes no sense at all. It is important to continue not to treat each other as a threat. Moreover, the EU wants Russia to become active, responsible, sustainable power in world affairs. The hope is that in years to come Russia will grow to be more democratic and the “Untied Russia” would stop using censor and force. To sum it up, both positive and negative trends have been scrutinized in bilateral relations of two global actors. 

The paper is in English language.