Sanctions and the Future of EU-Russian Economic Relations

The essay examines the qualitative changes in EU-Russian relations which resulted from the 2014 sanctions. Thematic, structural and institutional aspects of the issue are analysed through the level of analysis' approach. Thematically, policy-specific and implementation measures reinforced an EU-Russian divorce' both in energy and trade. Structurally, the scope of EU-Russian dialogue narrowed in favour of relations between Moscow and member states, and in multilateral fora; this dialogue also became dependent on Russia-US relations. Institutionally sanctions have led to the growing poverty of transgovernmental and transnational relations. As a result, achievements of previous years have been derailed, and reversal of the negative trends will prove difficult.