Russia-Germany: from the strategic partnership to the pragmatic cooperation (2001-2008)

The first half of the 2000s. should recognize the heyday of the unipolar structure of international relations, characterized by theundisputed superpower in the face of the superiority of U.S. over other members of the international community in all spheres, especiallyeconomic and military-political fields. Russia, whose international роsitions have been weakened, however, tried to become a full member ofthe emerging regional space. The main tool for achieving this goal was the mechanism of "strategic partnership" that Moscow sought to putinto practice in bilateral relations with key European powers. A special role is assigned the Kremlin partnership with Germany as the mostdeveloped EU countries, claiming the status of the geopolitical center of the continent. At first, this desire has found a positive response fromGermany and provided a positive trend in Russian-German relations. However, events in the mid-2000s. gave reason to believe that"strategic partnership" is not a reliable guarantee that prevents a new round of tensions between Russia and Germany. The increase in tensionwas generated by a set of conflicts, as multilateral, in which Germany participated as a member of western organizations, and bilateral, dueto unresolved issues in the dialogue of the Moscow-Berlin. By the middle of the first decade of the XXI century. Relations between Moscowand Berlin have lost the dynamism and the need for additional momentum. At this time, began drifting toward the international system ofsoft unipolarity, which caused variation in the development of bilateral relations. This development could go one of two scenarios that can beroughly described as pessimistic and moderately optimistic. In a number of reasons - high degree of institutionality bilateral relations, thecoalition nature of the new federal government with active participation of the SPD in shaping foreign policy in Berlin - was elected thesecond option. Turning to the rails of pragmatism, the rulers of Germany, in words critical of domestic and foreign policy of the Kremlinsoftened its stance on several issues. During the intergovernmental consultations to Russian President V.V. Putin has managed to achievefrom the new Federal Chancellor A. Merkel to the importance of building the North European gas pipeline to the energy security ofGermany. Both Russia and Germany made clear its commitment to multilateral solutions to international problems. Berlin had to considerthat the use of the Russian card in European politics, it provides a great opportunity for political maneuvering.In general, Russia and Germany have managed to keep the spirit of cooperation that allowed to be optimistic about the future of bilateralrelations.

Keywords

Authors

References