A review of EU-Russian relations: added value or structurally deficient?

Summary:

The dissolution of the Soviet Union (SU) marked the end of the way the international political system had been organized since 1945. New states emerged and the foreign policies of the European states and Russia had to be readjusted.1 Since one of the hitherto existing two superpowers collapsed, the remaining superpower was by default predominant in the international system. In the Western hemisphere, the dominant position of the United States (US) had been unchallenged during the Cold War and remained unchallenged after the Cold War.

After the dissolution of the SU and after the conclusion of the Maastricht Treaty, Russia and the EU developed several institutions and policies (f. i. the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement which will be discussed later in detail) to express their foreign policy positions. These institutions and policies are analysed as endogenous issues in the first part of the paper for the EU and in the second part for Russia. However, they evolved and changed in the process of finding solutions for international conflicts and crises that forced the EU and Russia to cooperate. These conflicts and crises are analysed as exogenous issues to EU-Russian relations in the third part of the paper. The energy dialogue, the status of Kosovo and the situation in Chechnya are considered as case studies for EU-Russian relations in this paper. It concludes that there is no clear-cut answer to the question if EU-Russian relations brought added value or were rather useless.

The energy dialogue is a good example that shows that the EU-Russian relation can bring added value. On the other hand, the example of the status of Kosovo shows EU-Russian relations as redundant. With regard to the situation in Chechnya, both interpretations are possible. At the beginning of the conflict in Chechnya, Russia and the EU accused each other of violating human rights and interference in domestic Russian affairs, respectively. After 11 September 2001 Russia considered the conflict in Chechnya not as domestic any more, so that EU-Russian relations facilitated humanitarian assistance instead of mutual accusations.

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