Russia and the European Union: The Sources and Limits of 'Special Relationships'

摘要

More than 15 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and two decades after the last Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, raised hopes that Russia would liberalize and join a common European home, Moscow again resorts to authoritarian means amid the continuing absence of a mutual agenda for Russia's integration into Western institutions. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia and the West have averted renewed confrontation but managed only to craft a series of half-formed, suboptimal partnerships with the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Group of 71 in which Russia is neither anchored by democratic rules nor fully excluded by Western institutions. These special relationships, which have been often turbulent, are now seriously strained by Russia's stronger geopolitical position, boosted by sustained high economic growth and market power in energy, and newly-emboldened rulers, who seek to renegotiate terms.