The EU and the Russian Federation and human rights: similar vocabularies, opposing grammars

The EU and Russia both value and promote human rights. They often use the same terminology, but with very different meanings – and then with real-world implications. The chapter first identifies how the then-European Community and newly independent Russian Federation had a convergence of understanding and even of practices in the early 1990s. That brief understanding dissipated in the face of growing Russian disillusionment with the emerging post–Cold War order and despite EU accommodation of massive human rights abuses in Chechnya. The chapter then contends that Russia had little concern with the EU enlargement in 2004–7 but took great issue with the launch of the Eastern Partnership, which it saw as an ideological project intent on threatening its sphere of influence. Both sides now wage not only a war of words but see warfare and territorial violations justified in the name of language once believed to carry common understanding and appreciation. Despite such pessimism, the chapter concludes with points of optimism and encouragement for EU human rights promotion towards Russia.