Press release, 04.07.2016

Moscow YABLOKO Deputy Chair, professor Galina Mikhaleva gave a report on the topic “From Europeanisation to re-Sovietisation. The Trends of Modern Russian politics.” at the public discussion platform in Bremen, Germany.

Susanne Schattenberg, director of the Research Centre for East Europe Studies, spoke about Leonid Brezhnev and his political style.

Marieluise Beck, a Bundestag deputy from the Green Party, and Alexander Logunov, professor of Russian State University of the Humanities, also participated in the discussion.

The panel members discussed the relations between the EU and Russia, depending on the development of domestic policy in Russia, and analogies and differences under Vladimir Putin’s and Leonid Brezhnev’s terms as well as the perception of Russia’s political development in Europe. The speakers stressed the necessity of returning to mutual trust and the policy of common values in the conditions of the aggravating conflict between Russia and the EU. One should turn from a new Cold War to new Helsinki agreements. One should preserve “the bridges” – the constant cultural, educational and public contacts between the people. They may become the basis for long-term and stable political and economic relations.

An example of such relations is the summer school of Bremen University and Russian State University of the Humanities “EU-Russia relations: yesterday, today, tomorrow”, where over 40 students and professors from Germany and Russia give their reports on the issue.