The Eu-Russia conceptual interaction in the Eurasian space in the context of western sanctions

For over twenty-five years Russia’s foreign policy has been shaping and still shapes the architecture of international relations in the post-Soviet territory; its projects, as mechanisms of cooperation, were changing under the pressure of Western political and economic sanctions.1 At the same time, the impulses that urged Russian leaders to act in this area, were taking place inside and outside this territory. The process is still ongoing, yet a careful investigation of its twenty-five year history reveals the factors behind the changed dynamics, forms and results at each successive stage. Russia’s foreign policy was impacted, to different degrees, by both the international climate and situation inside the country. As the state power grew stronger, Russia’s economy was growing less vulnerable and more sustainable than before. The extensive discussion of Russia’s strategy and tactics, as well as diverse mechanisms of interaction in the post-Soviet space, adds relevance to the subject of the present article. We have also discussed certain projects of cooperation in the post-Soviet space against the background of the gradually intensifying competition between Moscow and Brussels for privileged positions in and integration with the post-Soviet Eurasian countries. The events that have been unfolding in Ukraine since the first half of 2014 (the inclusion of Crimea in Russia and the separatist movement in the eastern part of the country), and their obvious repercussions became the starting point of considerable changes in the geopolitical map of the western part of the post-Soviet territory and opened a new stage in Russia’s foreign policy. Today, the substantive content of this stage remains vague, which means that any comprehensive analysis of its impact on Russia’s foreign policies would be premature. It is clear, however, that, in the context of Western sanctions, this situation challenges Russia and the countries that the competing sides want to draw into their integration models. © 2017, CA and CC Press AB. All rights reserved