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In
regard to Common Space freedom, security
and justice the Wikipedia entry on EU-Russian
relations says work on this space has already
made a large step forward with the conclusion
of negotiations on the Visa Facilitation
and the Readmission Agreements.
"Both
the EU and Russia are in the process of
ratifying these agreements. The visa dialogue
will continue with a view to examine the
conditions for a mutual visa-free travel
regime as a long-term perspective."
Much
of this progress is behind the scenes having
been slowed and made tentative by the Ukrainian
crisis. Russian-European relations are the
international relations between the EU and
its largest bordering state, the Russian
Federation, to the east, difficult to co-ordinate
with the differing foreign policies of the
each of the member states.
The
relations of individual member states of
the European Union and Russia vary, though
a 1990s common foreign policy outline towards
Russia was the first such EU foreign policy
agreed.
Furthermore,
four European Union-Russia Common Spaces
are agreed as a framework for establishing
better relations. The latest EU-Russia strategic
partnership was signed in 2011, but it was
later challenged by the European Parliament
in 2015 following the annexation of Crimea.
Another
problem, that threatens to become a solution,
is that many in the west on the left and
the right are increasingly pro-Russian,
notwithstanding the Ukraine issue.
While
most even if this camp would be hostile
to Russia re-annexing the whole of the Ukraine,
not so Russian retention of the Crimea.
This peninsula has been part of Russia since
1788, except since 1954, when it became
part of a supposedly independent Ukraine,
but only independent enough to get a seat
in the UN, but otherwise no more independent
than any other part of the then Soviet Union.
Even then, the Crimea was an autonomous
region of the Ukraine with a local Russian
majority.
The
Crimea with its Russian majority is pleased
to be holding Sebastapol and the great Russian
Black Sea naval base, which has been so
much a part of the country's military and
literary tradition.
What's
more Russia and the west are on much the
same side in the Middle East, particularly
in regard to fighting and destroying ISIS.
Given
these circumstances and a few electoral
changes in the west - particularly in the
United States - it is entirely possible
that one can look forward to improved European-Russian
trade relations - which are dysfunctional,
but barely.
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