ABSTRACT
The study of relations between the European Union (EU) and Russia has experienced a significant boost during the last five years. This chapter presents a critical approach to EU-Russia relations, arguing that at the centre of the recent move towards conflict in EU–Russia relations is the gradual collision of the hybrid exceptionalisms that the two actors have developed since the end of the Cold War. These endeavours have been influenced by the need to achieve authenticity in solving the deep identity crises the EU and Russia have had to tackle during the last three decades. The chapter analyses the salience of humiliations and trauma, and find that the concepts have been one of the key factors that have informed the foreign policies (and their mutual interactions) of the EU and Russia since the onset of the Ukraine crisis in late 2013.
