POST-SOVIET REGION IN SOVEREIGNTY DISCOURSES OF RUSSIA AND EUROPEAN UNION

The notion of “sovereignty” has become one of the key concepts in the discourses of Russia and the European Union. They resort to it, substantiating their positions in relation to each other within the Russia – West conflict. The states of the post-Soviet space hold a special place in the conflict. The proposed study reveals the features of the presence of the states of the region in the discourses of sovereignty and related political practices of Russia and of the EU. For Russia, the post-Soviet space is the territory of the direct realization of its statehood and identity. The construction of a vertical of power within the country led to the formation of a hierarchy of sovereignties in the “near abroad”. The European Union has also structured the region based on its tasks. By transforming it in accordance with his own norms and practices, he seeks to ensure its own security. Both Russia and the EU are placing the states of the post-Soviet space into their projections of power, and those projections differ seriously from each other. In both cases, however, the states of the region are in a subdominant position. It refers to the different dimensions of sovereignty, from international and legal to internal ones.