Authors

Irina Busygina ¹;  ¹ Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation

Discussion

< p>Russian influence is objectively constrained in both its shared neighborhoods. However, Central Asia, that is, the countries in the Russian shared neighborhood with China, creates incomparably fewer problems for the Russian leadership than the countries in the shared neighborhood with the EU. It is from this region that threats to Russia emanate, the fight against which requires more and more resources, especially informational, and these resources are needed to influence communities both in these countries and in Russia itself.

The example of Russia’s interaction with China in the zone of their shared neighborhood shows that Russia, despite its numerous declarations, is ready, under certain conditions, to be satisfied with the role of junior partner. Formal and informal arrangements on the division of spheres of influence in the shared neighborhood are possible with China. With the EU, this is fundamentally impossible as the EU authorities as well as the national authorities of the EU member states, even if they wanted to, do not control multiple actors that are willing to contribute to the democratization processes in the neighbouring countries.