ABSTRACT
On 8 December 1991, leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, meeting at Belavezha near Minsk, stated that the USSR no longer existed as a subject of international right and as a geopolitical reality. The missed putsch against the president of the USSR was a turning point which resulted in accelerating the decay of the Soviet Union. The expression Russia-first policy' has been used by academics to describe the EU policy in the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. This expression overlooks important facts or EU motivations. The EU's initial policy following the collapse of the USSR was embedded in the vision of the post-Soviet area as still having a common identity and thus requiring a regional approach. Regional cooperation was identified as an objective to be encouraged by the EC with a view to fostering stability in the post-Soviet area.
