Dr. Nadia Arbatova, Head of the Department on European Political Studies, Institute for World Economy and International Relations, Moscow (IMEMO)
Dr. Sergey Utkin, Head of the Strategic Assessment Section, Institute for World Economy and International Relations, Moscow (IMEMO)
Prof. ;Kolja Raube, Assistant professor for European Studies, KU Leuven
Dr. Irina Petrova, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Kent

The global Covid-19 pandemic has radically changed our daily lives. It has already had a significant impact on global health and mobility, and will heavily hamper the regional and global economy for years to come. But what will be the consequences of the pandemic on international relations in general and, more specifically, relations between the EU and Russia?
 
In a first part, this EUCROSS webinar will discuss the pandemic’s consequences for world politics, for which, rather than a turning point, the Covid-19 crisis seems to constitute a catalyst of existing trends. The scenario of states uniting behind a “common enemy" with respect to the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have not materialized. The pandemic has not bridged the gap between the EU and the US and has only intensified the latent bipolarity between the United States and China. Moreover, the Covid-19 crisis has not ameliorated the antagonistic relations between Russia and the West.
 
These dynamics have had and will continue to have a significant impact on the internal policies and external relations of the EU. Thus, in a second part, the webinar focuses on the effect of the pandemic on the EU and, more specifically, EU-Russia relations. With a view to the EU, we will focus mainly on the effect of the crisis on the EU’s ability act as an international actor and its potential approach to international politics in times of Covid-19. With regard to EU-Russia relations, the discussion focuses on the impact of the crisis on the ongoing linkages between the two actors, particularly their security, economic and energy relations.   


Moderator: Alex Andrione-Moylan (KU Leuven) 

Participation is free and the webinar can be joined from anywhere in the world.