EU-Russia
The relations between the European Union and Russia constantly evolve and they are mainly based on the lack of a new special agreement, but instead, since 2009, it has been worked upon a Partnership for Modernisation - both technical and political. In the framework of this dialogue is also achieving a visa-free travel for European and Russian citizens. In the past years the economic relations between the two sides have grown significantly, as Russia is till holding the third place of a most important partner of the EU, after the US and China. The EU exports goods worth 87bn euro for Russia, which is 6.4% of all the exports of the Union, and imports 158bn euro in goods, according to 2010 data, which is 10.5% of all the imports.
This makes the EU the biggest market for Russian goods. Russia mainly exports for Europe energy raw materials. Of its entire oil exports 88% go for the EU, 70% of the natural gas and 50% of the foal exports. It is the energy dependence of the EU, especially of some of its member states, from Russia, that is a reason for constant tensions, both inside the Union itself and in its relations with Moscow. Foreign policy is also often a reason for clashes between the two sides. In this subject euinside follows mainly the EU-Russia summits, and in broader perspective the development of Russia itself. The energy issue is broadly developed in another subject.
Russia and Turkey: Enemies in the Past, Conscious Partners in the Future* Two former empires, often in conflict with one another, now have an opportunity for a common cooperation in the area of their interests and there already are rudimentary forms of such a cooperation, is the opinion of Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre. His analysis, although s ...
Sergey Lavrov: There Is No Contradiction Between Values and Interests After the election of Vladimir Putin again for president of Russia on March 4, fears have not disappeared what the country's foreign policy will be. This is why, quite on time the long serving (since 2004) Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov gave an extensive interview (in Russian) for Kon ...
Eurasian Union – a Trinket for Three Comrades The confession of the former (and future) president of Russia -Vladimir Putin - that the break-up of the Soviet Union is "the biggest geopolitical disaster of the last century" is widely known. It was made in the Russian parliament on 25 April 2005. Up until now, Mr Putin makes arbitrary assessm ...
Europe is Awakening for Russia … with a Heavy Hangover On the 8th of November 2011 the coastal resort of Lubmin, in Northeastern Germany, saw half a dozen political leaders gathering to turn on a tap and give the kick-off of the controversial gas pipeline Nord Stream. The pipe, named by former Polish president Alexander Kwasniewsky "a mine at the fu ...
Russia offers a sunset over Volga, the EU - a boat "The Prime Minister of Canada said that to have a common border with the US was like sharing bed with an elephant. We share our bed with a bear. [...] I would like to invite the Commission to go to Nizhnyi Novgorod not just with a large pot of honey, but also with a big net". These words belong ...
Foreign Policy Premiere of President Putin The new/old Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who again entered the Kremlin in the beginning of May is a person who does nothing by accident. It is no accident that he sent his predecessor (and now a prime minister) Dmitry Medvedev for the G8 and NATO summits and chose Belarus for his first for ...
The Russian Bear at the European Doorstep For the European Union, Russia is the elephant in the room - something that everyone is seeing but nobody wants to discuss. Russia is the bear on EU's doorstep but what we say in our official statements does not reflect our real attitude towards it. These words belong to British MEP Edward McMil ...
The EU-Russia Relations Were at Their Highest Level "A very successful summit", "a summit of results", "very honest discussions", "our partnership is strategic and deserves the best of assessments". With such words of praise started the news conference after the end of the regular EU-Russia summit in Brussels, in which took part the EU leaders, J ...
A Wind of Change? Russia has improved the Chinese record of negotiations for membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) from 15 to 18 years and is going to become a fully fledged member of the world trade community after it gets a final recommendation by the ministers of trade of the organisation between 15 ...
The EU does not need a reset of its relations with Russia The EU and Russia have always had serious frictions on numerous issues but there was a sense of optimism and partnership at their regular summit in Rostov-on-Don. A reason for this sense was the start, on June 1st, of the initiative "Partnership for Modernisation". If before the European Union f ...
Adelina Marini Adelina Marini 
