NORMATIVE POWER IN THE COMPETENCE OF THE EURASIAN AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROJECT IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the use of normative force in the competition between Russia and the EU for attracting the post-Soviet republics to the Eurasian and European integration projects, respectively. The article examines the crucial role played by the use of the normative force by Russia and the EU in the post-Soviet countries for their inclination to choose a European or Eurasian direction of integration. The study is based on the methodology of social constructivism. Considering the normative force as a kind of soft power reflecting the subject's ability to change the regulatory context in countryobject of the application of force and thereby influence the behavior of this state in the desired side, the authors come to the conclusion that in the course of the competition and the integration projects of Russia and the EU in the CIS space, the European Union demonstrated the ability to use the normative forces and learned to achieve involvement of European identity in its orbit. Russia, having exceptionally favorable conditions on the strategy of this process, could not use the available potential for formulating tasks and objectives even in countries that were initially dependent on it.