Russia’s Vision of the European Green Pact. A perfidious protectionism or opportunities for collaboration?

The current paper proposes a thorough analysis of the European Green Deal and the impact that it has on the interdependence between Russia and the European Union, given the constraints imposed by the current conflict and the factors that have contributed to the deteriorating of the partnership between the European Union and Russia, which I will discuss in this paper. During this paper, I will additionally draw parallels between Russia’s vision of this Green Deal in order to provide as clear a comprehension of what the European Green Deal represents for Russia as possible. On the one hand, it is a challenge or, as former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev put it, treacherous protectionism; on the other hand, this pact is perceived as an opportunity for cooperation. In the first section of this paper, I will provide Russia’s perspective on the country’s greening efforts, which, as we all know, have the primary goal of providing a healthy environment. This term has two connotations in this context: first, it refers to environmental care, and second, it refers to the health of the people in the respective states. We will see what applies and what doesn’t, with a focus on the Russian Federation, where greening hasn’t been a top priority in years. In the second section of the article, I will discuss the extent to which the European Green Pact is viewed as murky protectionism emanating from the West, and how this process can have a detrimental impact on Russia’s exports of consumer goods. If the European Union achieves its goal of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, it could be viewed as treacherous protectionism against Russian exports to Russia. In the third section, I will discuss how Russia sees the European Green Pact as helpful to its own exports since it can open up prospects for collaboration between the EU and Russia, which, as we will see throughout the work, requires significant political will from both countries. I elaborated in this paper by referring to the main studies made by famous experts on the consequences of the European Green Pact on the territory of the Russian Federation, such as Igor Makarov, James Henderson, and a number of professionals with analyses written in Russian. I thus agree with the assessments made by the aforementioned writers, highlighting both the prospects and risks/emerging problems of the European Green Pact from Russia’s perspective, as well as the development of a robust and sustainable cooperation in the sphere of green transition.