Contemporary geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West: Is a (new) schism emerging between Europe and Russia?

Abstract

The paper describes the contemporary geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West, or rather Russia and the United States, with its consequences affecting the relations between Russia and Europe. The introduction presents the fundamentals that determine the complexity of geopolitical confrontation. The second part specifically addresses the issue of geopolitical relations between Russia and the United States. It also reviews their foreign policy relations in the period 2006-2014, as well as their military-political relations. The third part analyzes the contemporary relations between Russia and the EU in the areas of security, energy and the politics, seen through Russian initiatives to define more modern forms of cooperation in these areas. It points out that the Europe's rejection of the Russian initiatives, along with clear American geopolitics of preventing the links between Russia and Europe, notably on the issue of Ukraine, have caused the old schism between Russia and Europe to reemerge. In conclusion, the question is raised as to whether the American geopolitics of inciting the Europe-Russia schism will disrupt Russia's geopolitical reappearance on the Eurasian space, namely - what are the prospects of Europe, which, due to this schism, loses the possibility of an independent geopolitical existence?.