ABSTRACT

This chapter seeks to reconstitute the narrative structure of the contemporary Russian discourse on EU-Russian relations and address the constitution of Russia's European identity in this discourse. It observes the spillover of a conflict issue, originally articulated in a narrow discursive arena of visa policies, into a wider space of the discourses of identity and difference that ultimately connects with the century-old debates on Russia's relation to European civilization. According to a number of empirical studies, conflict in EU-Russian relations revolves around two opposite themes. It includes the Russian problematization of its exclusion from Europe in the EU's administrative practices and the reassertion by Russia of its sovereign subjectivity through a policy of self-exclusion from the European political and normative space. Thus, the Russian discourse on relations with Europe endlessly oscillates between the problematization of the lack of due recognition of Russia as a member of the European political community.