COMPETITION BETWEEN EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN INTEGRATION PROJECTS IN THE CIS AFTER THE UKRAINIAN CRISIS

Abstract

The article considers the key parameters of the competition between the European and Eurasian integration projects in the CIS space, analyzes the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis of 20132014 in terms of the dynamics of this competition and gives an assessment of the results of this crisis for its main participants. The research is based on the methodology of social constructivism. With the help of the process tracing method, the political and institutional parameters of the competition of the European and Eurasian integration projects in the CIS are deconstructed. Discursive analysis allows to form an idea of the limitations imposed by the political rhetoric of its main participants on their political behavior. To understand the scale of the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis, the Eastern Partnership and the Eurasian Economic Union are involved in institutional analysis. Analyzing the course and consequences of the Ukrainian crisis for integration competition in the CIS, the author comes to the conclusion that in the course of this crisis the European Union managed to solve most of the tasks set by it in the framework of integration competition, but the EU failed to impose its approach to the political organization of the European continent on Russia and the Unified Energy System. The intensity of competition for integration projects as such has somewhat decreased, but it has been subordinated to the logic of political confrontation and the increased normative gap between the parties, which makes it impossible to use forms of practical cooperation as a platform for resolving political contradictions. The results can be applied in shaping Russian policy towards integration processes in the CIS space.