Bratersky Maxim Vladimirovich – Sc.D. in Political Sciences, Leading Researcher, Head of Sector INION RAS; Professor, Leading Researcher, Faculty of World Economy and World Politics, National Research University «Higher School of Economics»
For several decades, expert and political community has been actively discussing the reasons why lately the rapprochement of Russia and the EU has been reversed. Among the reasons of «divorce», which began in the first half of the 2000s and became apparent in 2008 after the Russian-Georgian conflict in South Ossetia, experts mention geopolitical contradictions, incompatibility of economic interests and other causes. Particular attention in the scientific literature is paid to the growing gap in value ideas of the European Union and Russia and an impossible compromise between the views of opposing sides on the organization of society and the world in general, on the role of an individual and the state as well as on understanding of good and evil. Traditionally, the system of European values was defined as «fundamental human rights and freedoms, liberalism in economics and politics, equality of all before the law and the rule of law». However, it seems that the current situation differs significantly from the situation described by researchers in the 1990s–2000s. Not only the Russian world outlook has changed, the values of the European Union have also undergone a profound transformation. In the process of globalization and the accompanying formation of supranational elites, the EU has come to extreme forms of liberalism, completely incompatible with the system of traditional values that is gaining ground in Russia. In addition to the value gap, the reasons for the deterioration of relations between Russia and the European Union are geopolitical faults, incompatibility of national interests and, in practical terms, the sanctions war and the collapse of energy interdependence. The article deals with the issue of value basis of Russian-European relations during current critical moment. The author places special emphasis on the evolution of European liberal democracy as well as on the change of Russian political paradigm as the main reasons for the mutual distancing between Russia and the EU.
European Union, Russia, post-liberalism, illiberalism, illiberal democracy, values.
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