The Influence of the Sanctions Policy on the Development of Trade and Economic Relations between the Russian Federation and the EU

Today, relations between two major geopolitical players – the Russian Federation and the European Union - have been around for more than two decades. During this time, they experienced periods of rising and favor and periods of decline and crisis. The reasons for this were mutual claims and dissatisfaction with each other on several issues and, of course, the mismatch of points of view on solving global problems. Nevertheless, cooperation between Europe and Russia continued to develop. This study is aimed at determining the degree of influence of the sanctions policy on the development of trade and economic relations between the Russian Federation and the European Union. To this end, the article analyzes the dynamics of relations between Russia and the EU before and after the sanction’s standoff. The causes of confrontation and key problems of interaction are considered. This study will be unique because it collects the largest amount of data on this topic over the past 5 years and on this database predicts the most likely scenarios for the further development of relations. Data will be collected from open online sources: Eurostat, the website of the EU Delegation to Russia and Federal State Statistics Service.