Vasile Rotaru

• PhD
• Project Manager at National School of Political Science and Public Administration

In Kyiv mainstream politics, the Intermarium (mizhmoria) idea is seen as complementary, rather than antagonistic, to other integration schemes. Kyiv already has — within the logic of an Intermarium — developed special ties with other Central-East European states. https://www.ibidem.eu/de/ukraine-in-central-and-eastern-europe-9783838216157.html

The 2008 invasion of Georgia, followed by the recognition of the independence of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the annexation of Crimea and the involvement in the war in Donbas, and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine have all marked the return to active Russian participation in separatist regions in the ‘near abroad’. They took the...

Russia-NATO relations have been volatile since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The phases of succession between cooperation and confrontation progressed in almost cyclical fashion. The periods of engagement culminating with declarations of Russian presidents Yeltsin and Putin about Moscow’s intentions to join NATO have contrasted with periods...

This article analyses Russia’s endeavours in legitimising the annexation of Crimea in the eyes of the Western community. The paper argues that Russia’s strategy of “silencing” the international contestation has been focused on the use of the West’s “language” for the justification of contested actions. Starting from the assertion that the formulati...

The 2008 Georgia war represented a turning point in Russian foreign policy. It was for the first time since the dissolution of the Soviet Union when Moscow invaded an independent country and for the first time when two members of the Council of Europe fought against each other. A premiere for Russian post-Soviet foreign policy was registered in 201...

There has been much debate about whether the US and Russia are locked in a new Cold War, but much less attention as to how the term is used in Russian political discourse. Through a close analysis of public statements, I analyze how the Cold War narrative has been used in the Russian public space since 2014, and assess how the “resuscitation” of th...

Declared a priority of Moscow’s foreign policy, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has enjoyed special attention from both Western and Russian specialists. However, the assessments by the two camps are often contradictory and do nothing but raise confusion about the prospects of ‘Putin’s pet project’. Although it is too early to have enough economi...

Since 2015 the Eastern half of the EU has witnessed an increasing regional preoccupation for new cooperation initiatives. In general, these regional initiatives have broad goals and duplicate each other, ‘older’ regional initiatives (e.g. the V4) or EU’s own policies such as Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) or Energy Security Strategy. In a...

Μέχρι στιγμής, η ανατολική διεύρυνση της B9 και της 3SI δεν συζητήθηκε δημοσίως μεταξύ των κρατών-μελών των δύο πρωτοβουλιών ή των πιθανών νέων μελών τους. Πιθανώς, υπάρχουν σημαντικοί ενδιαφερόμενοι ή ακόμη και ολόκληρες εθνικές κυβερνήσεις στο πλαίσιο της B9 και της 3SI που θα ήταν απρόθυμοι να τις επεκτείνουν πέρα από τα σημερινά σύνορά τους. Έτ...

So far, an eastern enlargement of the B9 and 3SI has not been publicly discussed among the two initiatives’ member states or their potential new members. Presumably, there are major stakeholders or even entire national governments within the B9 and 3SI that would be reluctant to extend them beyond their current confines. It will thus take a larger...

The article contributes to the efforts of understanding Russia’s legitimization endeavours by looking at the policy narratives centred around the so-called Kosovo precedent and the way they were perceived by different actors from Ukraine, Russia, and international experts. The aim of the paper is to scrutinize the process of politicization of conte...

The “Bolotnaya” protests of 2011–2013 and the ongoing Ukraine crisis have brought to the forefront of Russian politics an increased preoccupation with soft power. Official discourse and directives seek to both avoid risks and exploit opportunities in using soft power toward state ends. This dichotomous approach to the “power of attraction” demonstr...

After the annexation of Crimea, Russia has not acknowledged either the violation of the international law or the infringement of sovereignty of Ukraine. Instead, Moscow has (misused d a series of arguments meant to justify its actions in Crimea both domestically and externally and to present an illegal act of breaching the basic international princ...

Embedded in a realist worldview, Russia has a " weakness " for hard power and zones of influence. For Moscow the control of the former Soviet republics represent both the guarantee of its security and the condition for the growth of its geopolitical strength. The present paper analyses Russian hard power presence in the former Soviet space, with a...

The EU-Russia relations have never been neither smooth nor too predictable; however, Georgian war was a shock for the West. The August 2008 events made European diplomats question the reliability of the Kremlin in the international arena, while the scholars brought again into discussion the Brezhnev Doctrine. How did the EU and Russia overpass the...