The EU and Russia: Strategic or Short-Sighted Partnership

The fall of the Soviet Union raised great expectations in the western world as to the possibility of integrating Russia into a community of democratic states. Indeed, from a very early stage, the European Union tried to steer the transformation of the Russian Federation towards democracy and a market economy. From 1991 onwards, the EU became the main provider of technical assistance to Russia through the TACIS programme and opened a new representation in Moscow. In 1994, the EU-Russian Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) was signed, although due to delays in its ratification it only entered into force in 1997.