Međuprostor EU-a, NATO-a i Rusije kao Rusosfera
INTERSPACE OF EU, NATO AND RUSSIA AS A RUSSOSPHERE

Summary/Abstract: After the breakup of the USSR, and the several rounds of Post-Cold War enlargements of the Western integrations, once large space of newly independent and geopolitically uncontrolled European post-communist states, located between the EU, NATO and Russia, contracts geopolitically and “wanders” strategically. The three states, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, located on Russia’s western borders share about three thousand kilometers of borders with the EU and NATO, and about two thousand and five hundred kilometers with Russia, which implicates that they are prone to the geopolitical influences from their surroundings. This Interspace of the three states lies inside the strategic triangle comprised of: 1) Russia – geopolitically and militarily powerful state as well as a giant considering its energy reserves, which makes her relatively strong “hard” power as well as a significant “soft” power; 2) the EU – economic giant on the global level that is not unified enough; has domestic problems and is partially dependent on Russia when it comes to energy, a civilian power without “hard” power that in its foreign relations relies on policies based on financial assistance, assurance, and attractiveness; 3) NATO, led by the USA – the most powerful military-political-security “hard” power that exists today; it does not have the kind of influence on Europe and the Post-Soviet space that it had in the 90-ies. However, as a consequence of subordination of the Interspace that lasted for a couple of centuries, the common characteristics intrinsic to this space occur: ambiguous identities; deficits in the democratic practices; complicated, prolonged and incomplete transition; economic decline, demographic problems – all of which favor a strategic “adoption” of the Interspace by the Kremlin, a former imperial master. At the same time, a relative marginalization of the Interspace is evident regarding the processes of Euro-Atlantic integration. After the unsuccessful attempts of “pulling out” Kiev, Kishinev, and the South Caucasian Tbilisi from this Russian sphere of influence, the states positioned in the Interspace, together with Russia, comprise a regional security complex, a stabilized geopolitical “Russosphere” that is a key part of the Kremlin’s attempts for Eurasian reintegration under Russia’s leadership.

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