Ruxit Revisited: Unravelling Russia's Dissociation From the Pan-European Security Order

Russia's first invasion of Ukraine in 2014 marked the culmination of Russia's dissociation from the project of institutionalised pan-European security and from the global liberal order more generally. While not denying the relevance of studying the causes of Russia's attacks on Ukraine, this study focuses on Russia's progressing dissociation from Western institutions that preceded the escalation of military tensions. Processes of dissociation—defined as the intentional distancing from the core rules and norms of institutions—occur rather often and might even become a dominant feature of world politics as deglobalisation proceeds. However, this phenomenon has rarely been tackled in academic research. What has been overlooked in the scholarly debate is the specific forms and underlying causes of dissociations from multilateral arrangements. Delving into the controversial history of Russia's drifting away from the European security regime complex after the end of the Cold War this paper demonstrates why Russia's leadership felt so estranged from the order whose creation it actively endorsed. Based on more than 30 interviews with experts of Russian foreign policy as well as Russian and Western diplomats and policymakers, this paper demonstrates how Moscow's disenchantment with European security institutions intensified as these institutions appeared in the Kremlin's eyes structurally unresponsive to evolving dynamics in Russian-Western relations.