Europe and Russia: Bridging Cultural Gap or Drifting Apart?

The paper deals with the main factors that influence joint Russia-Europe interactions in short and middle term perspective. It suggests several points to be further discussed. It starts from the point that contemporary Russia presents a political entity, which is not entirely compatible with western international society in cultural, institutional and structural terms. It is for this reason that the existing grounds for cooperation may have too little in common for the emergence of any joined political culture. On the other hand, Russia is already entering into the globalizing world so a balance between possible extremes can be build if domestically appreciated. Being a military power, Russian State needs to have economy that could be compatible with both its security needs and the security needs of its international partners. For the moment, however, Russian economy is, to a degree, closed within itself so a need for a more open economic space with Europe and the US could create strategic incentives. The worrying tendency, however, is that civilizational gap between Russia and Europe is, in fact, growing wider while it also could be bridged in the years ahead. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]