title: Russia, the European Union, and the Lands Between
abstract: The collapse of the Soviet Union and its ‘external empire’ in the late 1980s and early 1990s opened a new chapter in the ancient story of Russia’s relationship with Europe, which has always been characterized by ambivalent attitudes on both sides. Russia itself, which was isolated by Mongol rule (13th-15th centuries) at the time of the Renaissance and Reformation and which started events that created the modern Europe, has always been unsure of whether it is properly a European country, while Eu