In Different Languages 2.0. Geopolitics and Sovereignty in the EU and Russia’s Discourses

Russia in Global Affairs. 2024. Vol. 22. No. 1. P. 72–92.

Tatiana A. Romanova

Since the early 1990s, the EU (previously the EEC) has positioned itself as

a normative actor, thus ensuring the dominance of the neoliberal agenda

on the world stage. Some of its partners accepted this state of affairs,

while others, like Russia, advanced alternative interpretations of various

categories to challenge the EU’s hegemony. Moscow and Brussels failed to

establish a dialogue in the same language. In recent years, a reverse process

has developed: the EU has been integrating the categories of ‘sovereignty’

and ‘geopolitical’ into its discourse. This article aims to identify whether

the use of the same terms signifies that Moscow and Brussels are about to 

find a “common language.” Theoretically, the article is based on critical

geopolitics, which implies discourse analysis as a methodology. It helps

to disclose common elements in the interpretations of sovereignty and

geopolitics, as well as fundamental distinctions in the way these categories

are integrated in the discourses of the European Union and Russia.

The plurality of interpretations results in the conceptions of “correct”

sovereignty and “negatively charged” sovereignism, and of “good” and “bad”

geopolitics in the discourses of Russia and the EU. The EU’s adaptation

of the language of realism further complicates communication between

Moscow and Brussels.

Keywords: геополитика, суверенитет, European Union, geopolitics, EU-Russia relations, дискурс, discourse, sovereignty, critical geopolitics, Отношения России и ЕС, критическая геополитика, технологический суверенитет, technological sovereignty, Европейский союз