Between interdependence and strategic interests: EU-Russia relations after the Georgian war

Abstract

The EU-Russia relations have never been neither smooth nor too predictable; however, Georgian war was a shock for the West. The August 2008 events made European diplomats question the reliability of the Kremlin in the international arena, while the scholars brought again into discussion the Brezhnev Doctrine. How did the EU and Russia overpass the deadlock and how have their relationship evolved? Using qualitative research methods: elite semi-structured interviews with the EU officials and Russian scholars, document analysis, discourse analysis and press coverage, the present article tries to answer to the above questions, presenting the main challenges of the EU-Russia relations and explaining the difficulties of negotiations between the two actors.