On May 31st the CEU Center for EU Enlargement Studies hosted a public lecture entitled: " Bridging a (mis)perceptional gap: the EU's Eastern Partnership and Russia" by Dr. Alexander Sergunin, professor of International Relations at St. Petersburg State University, Russia.

Dr. Alexander Sergunin’s lecture addressed the perception of Eastern Partnership (EaP) in the Russian academia, the major Russian concerns about the project and possible solutions to the arousing problems. Sergunin described the position of the most prevalent school of thought in Russia, the geopolitical/realist mainstream, and the ideas shared by the two much less influential groups, the liberals/globalists and the social constructivists. He continued with elaborating the three main Russian concerns about EaP. First, Russian government officials are worried about the EU having a hidden agenda aimed at undermining Russian dominance, Russian integration projects and sub-regional cooperation. Second, Moscow fears that local separatism might be encouraged in the Kaliningrad oblast as a result of over intensified regional cooperation. Third, there is a fear that the main aim of EaP is to build alternative gas and oil pipelines bypassing Russia. Finally, Professor Sergunin shared his views on how EU-Russia bilateral relations should be improved first and how a transition from national to sub-national levels (such as border regions) might result in a better perception and eventually higher success of the initiative. A lively session of questions and answers followed his presentation.

For more details, please see the presentation below.