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Event | 14 July 2016

ELN staff participates in Valdai Discussion Club

EU Russia Russia-West Relations Euro-Atlantic Security

On 14 July 2016, ELN Research Director Lukasz Kulesa and Research Fellow Joseph Dobbs participated in the Valdai Discussion Club panel discussion on the prospects of future cooperation between Russia and the EU.

According to the report, ELN Research Director Lukasz Kulesa began the discussion by introducing the ELN report “The Strategic Case for EU-Russia Cooperation” as an alternative to the majority of reports being issued by EU think tanks, in that it does not offer a very pessimistic view of EU-Russia relations, and at the same time looks at what relations could look like in the long term.

ELN Research Fellow Joseph Dobbs presented the report, beginning with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of Russia and the European Union. Dobbs analyzed the consequences of Russia and the EU not cooperating, which he said led to accumulated weaknesses and threats, while the strengths and opportunities were lost. Because of this, the report found, cooperation would be preferential to coexistence.

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