ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of the book. The book highlights the role of images that the EU and Russia hold of themselves and of each other, and how these images give meaning to the broader context in which they operate. It focuses on the process, in order to grasp the relational dynamics of EU-Russia relations. Today EU-Russia relations have reached the deepest crisis since the end of the Cold War. There is a standoff amidst an ongoing war in eastern Ukraine, military build-up, and sanctions. The current crisis is also the result of a negative spiral of distrust, of the attribution of negative intentions to the counterpart. The two elements such as rethinking diverging visions to promote a shared narrative and reversing the negative spiral of distrust, are interrelated. In a binary Europe of exclusive allegiances, any choice ultimately gets perceived as a geopolitical one.
