History and Examples of EU-Russian Relations

(Dominic Heinz, Fern University Hagen)

In the past concerns occurred often between Russia and the European Union (EU) as an actor distinct from national foreign policy institutions. The EU neighbours directly Russia and is therefore primarily affected from inner Russian events. Not only the Russian presidential elections showed that internal or endogenous issues have impacts on external relations. The paper describes the History of EU-Russian relations from the end of the cold war until the end of Vladimir Putin's presidency. Exogenous examples like the war in Chechnya, in Kosovo and the issue of energy supply shaped the nature of the policy-making environment on both sides and had an impact on the EU-Russian relations. The narrative account outlines briefly the evolution along the stepping stones in the EU-Russian relations.