Radical shifts in Russian-Ukrainian relations and geopolitics of neighbourhood

Abstract

The break-up between Russia and Ukraine was rather painful for both sides Though it was not unavoidable, it was prepared by the developments in both countries since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and to a certain extent resulted from the very model of state-building adopted by Ukrainian political elite and based on the opposition of Ukraine to Russia seen as the way to the emancipation from the burden of the imperial/Soviet past. It involved, in particular, a radical revision of Ukrainian territory’s symbolic perception, provoked, on its turn, by the Russian-Ukrainian “battles of memory” initiated well before the crisis of 2014. Recent events deeply transformed public opinion in Ukraine and identity of Ukrainians. The author describes some consequences of the break up between two countries for ordinary citizens, especially living in border regions. He briefly considers the adaptation of economy and population to the new conditions of neighbourhood.