If the EU wants to have Russia as a law-abiding, reliable, and eventually democratic neighbour on a continent where even the last shadows of the Iron Curtain have dispelled, it must build its partnership with Russia on the same foundations that made European integration a success – interdependence based on stable rules, transparency, symmetrical relations and consensus. These foundations will not build themselves. The Union must be much more determined about agreeing rules of engagement with Russia, and then defending them
