Abstract

This chapter deals with Russia-EU relations. It starts with a brief overview of the research literature on the topic. It then discusses the evolution of Russian foreign policy towards the EU after the Cold War, distinguishing between six periods that largely correspond with the terms of the Russian presidents. The relationship has become more strained, but the development has not been linear, rather it has waned between more cooperative and confrontational relations. The chapter then deals with three further questions: how Russian foreign policy is made, what its impact has been and how it can be explained. There is no single theoretical perspective that currently dominates research on Russian foreign policy and its relations with the EU, but all the key theoretical approaches, realist, liberal, constructivist and psychological, can all advance some plausible but still partial explanations.