Crisis formation in Russia’s relations with the European Union and the Western community: Prospects for changes

Abstract

The article analyzes the current crisis in relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) which is part of a more global crisis in the relations between Russia and the Western community that can be analyzed in terms of the Russian-Western “cool war” concept. Firstly, the main trends in relations between Russia and the EU since the early 1990s are analyzed within three main dimensions of their interactions (economic interdependence; political values and institutions; foreign policy dimension) in the context of relations between Russia and the Western community. The article then examines how the current crisis and its key factors (relations between Russia and the EU in their common neighborhood; mutual sanctions regimes established by Moscow and Brussels against each other; transformation of the relations between Russia, the EU and its member states as a result of the crisis) are analyzed and discussed by the Western and Russian academic and expert communities. Specific attention is paid to the issues and problems that are prioritized by Russian and Western scholars, how they have been studied, how the scholars and experts reveal the causes and consequences of the relevant aspects of the current crisis in the EU-Russia relations in the context of a more global confrontational stagnation in the relations between Russia and the Western community. Conclusions are made regarding prospects for any changes in the current crisis of EU-Russia relations, and the factors that could stimulate or limit these changes are outlined.