European integration, regionalisation, and democratization: investigation in dependent and independent variables

This paper analyzes the cross-border cooperation between regions in Russia and in Europe. Theoretically speaking, it focuses on the process of the regionalization of foreign policy as compared with the process of federalization and the interplay of domestic and foreign factors in the process of regime transition within the Russian regions. More precisely, it examines the factors that facilitate the development of regional cooperation with European partners, and also the impact of this cooperation on the process of democratization within the regions. The initiative of European countries and organizations are the most important, and, therefore, their “neighborhood’s effect” is likely to be the most influential external factor in the process of transition once transition is analyzed, not on national, but on the regional level. Thus, the analysis approaches the phenomenon of regional cooperation with Europe as both a dependent and an independent variable.