The Narrative Dialogue (1237–2000)

Talseth, Lars-Christian U.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-33126-3_2

Lars-Christian U. Talseth²

604 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter will cover the historical context of the Energy Dialogue, from the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1237 to the year 2000, and the months preceding the launch of the dialogue. As such, it will cover the ‘baseline’ narratives of the dialogue, at a time when there was careful optimism in both Moscow and Brussels. In Chap. 1, I argued that time and space affect narratives and that the narrative failure of the Energy Dialogue was never pre-determined. To Bakhtin, and indeed to others such as Kant, time and space, or the chronotope, constituted the only a priori principle of knowledge—the realm within which our narratives are continuously shaped. That is not to say that the essence of time and space is a matter of consensus. Quite the contrary, since we cannot fully fathom either, both space and time are highly contested concepts. For Bakhtin, ‘time in real life is no less organised by convention than it is in a literary text’. This has several practical implications. First, whereas time conditions narratives, the narrative of time and chronology is itself a point of much dispute. A narrative, like being itself, is an aesthetic event. Second, past experiences shape our experience of the present, which in turn shapes our expectations of the future. In dialogue, which means through speech, synchrony coexists with diachrony, or moving through time. In other words, histories matter. Third, while time embeds certain narratives, for instance, through practices and institutions, it also changes them, over and over again.

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Notes

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7.
Ibid.
8.
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9.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
10.
Author’s interviews with Stanislav Zhiznin; Christian Cleutinx.
11.
European Commission, “Communication from President Prodi, Vice President de Palacio and Commissioner Patten to the Commission—the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue,” 2.
12.
Author’s interviews with Christian Cleutinx; EU Official A.
13.
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14.
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15.
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16.
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22.
Ibid., 2–3.
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25.
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26.
Ibid., 3.
27.
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28.
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29.
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30.
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31.
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41.
Gerhard Schröder and Giuliano Amato, “Weil es uns Ernst ist mit der Zukunft Europas,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 21 September 2000; ibid.
42.
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43.
European Commission, “Green Paper, towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply,” 88.
44.
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45.
“The Maastricht Treaty,” (Maastricht: The European Communities, 1992), see Articles 130s, 228 and 38.
46.
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47.
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50.
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52.
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54.
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55.
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58.
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59.
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61.
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62.
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63.
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65.
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66.
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67.
Ibid.
68.
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70.
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71.
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72.
Ibid.
73.
Ian Traynor and Michael White, “Blair Courts Outrage with Putin Visit,” The Guardian, 11 March 2000.
74.
Romano Prodi, “President of the European Commission Plenary Session of the European Parliament Strasbourg,” (Strasbourg: European Parliament, 2000).
75.
Author’s interview with EU Official A.
76.
Author’s interview with EU Official A.
77.
Andrei Konoplyanik and Friedrich von Halem, “The Energy Charter Treaty: A Russian Perspective,” in The Energy Charter Treaty: An East-West Gateway for Investment and Trade, ed. Thomas W. Waelde (London: Kluwer Law International, 1996).
78.
Energy Charter Secretariat, “The Energy Charter Treaty and Related Documents.”
79.
Author’s interviews with Russian Official A; Russian Official B [Moscow & phone, 16.02 & 30.03.12]; Russian Official C [Phone, 04.03 & 09.04.12].
80.
Author’s interview with Russian Official A.
81.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
82.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
83.
Author’s interviews with Christian Cleutinx; EU Official A.
84.
Author’s interview with EU Official A.
85.
Agence France Presse, “Putin in Paris to Boost Russian Relations with EU,” Agence France Presse, 31 October 2000.
86.
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87.
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88.
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91.
Shevtsova, Russia Lost in Transition.
92.
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93.
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94.
Neumann, “Russia’s Standing as a Great Power,” 128–29.
95.
Putin, “Russia at the Turn of the Millennium.”
96.
Ibid.
97.
Vladimir Lenin, “Nashe vneshnee i vnutrennee polozhenie i zadachi partii,” in Moskovskaia gubernskaia konferentsiia RKP (b) (Moscow1920).
98.
Spanjer, “Russian Gas Price Reform and the EU-Russia Gas Relationship,” 9.
99.
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100.
Marshall I. Goldman, Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 61–65.
101.
Bank Rossii, “Platezhnyi balans Rossiiskoi Federatsii za 2000 god,” (Moscow: Bank Rossii, 2008).
102.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
103.
Zhiznin, Energy Diplomacy: Russia and the World, 30.
104.
“Geo-Economic Aspects of Gas Transmission from Russia,” Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 11 March 2008.
105.
In the official English translation of the speech, the statement was translated as ‘major geopolitical disaster of the century,’ see Vladimir Putin, “Poslanie Federal’nomu Sobraniiu Rossiiskoi Federatsii,” (Moscow: President of Russia, 2005).
106.
Ministry of Fuel and Energy of the Russian Federation, “Osnovnye kontseptual’nye polozheniia razvitiia neftegazovogo kompleksa Rossii,” Neftegazovaia Vertikal’, no. 1 (2000): section 5.
107.
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108.
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109.
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110.
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111.
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112.
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113.
Government of the Russian Federation, “Strategiia razvitiia otnoshenii Rossiiskoi Federatsii s Evropeiskim Soiuzom na srednesrochnuiu perspektivu (2000–2010 gody),” 1.
114.
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115.
Ibid., 8.
116.
Zhiznin, Energy Diplomacy: Russia and the World, 275.
117.
Vladimir Putin, “Poslanie Federal’nomu Sobraniiu Rossiiskoi Federatsii,” (Moscow: President of the Russian Federation, 2001).
118.
Ivanov, “Raschishchat’ puti k zrelomu partnerstvu Rossii i Evrosoiuza,” 1.
119.
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120.
Putin, “Russia at the Turn of the Millennium.”
121.
“Poslanie Federal’nomu Sobraniiu Rossiiskoi Federatsii,” (Moscow: President of the Russian Federation, 2000).
122.
“Mineral’no-syr’evye resursy v strategii razvitiia rossiiskoi ekonomiki,” Zapiski Gornogo Instituta, no. 144 (1999).
123.
Clifford G. Gaddy, a Russia expert and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., concluded that large part of Putin’s dissertation had been plagiarised; see Clifford G. Gaddy, “The Mystery of Vladimir Putin’s Dissertation ,” The Brookings Institution, no. 30 March (2006).
124.
Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, “Osnovnye polozheniia Energeticheskoi strategii Rossii na period do 2020 goda (Protokol № 39 ot23 noiabria 2000 g.),” 10.
125.
Ibid., 40.
126.
Author’s interviews with Russian Official A; Russian Official C.
127.
Maria Ignatova, “Viktor Khristenko: Poka my samoedskaia derzhava,” Izvestiia, 8 June 2001.
128.
Putin, “Mineral’no-syr’evye resursy v strategii razvitiia rossiiskoi ekonomiki.”
129.
Ibid.
130.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
131.
Author’s interview with Stanislav Zhiznin.
132.
RIA Novosti, “Victor Khristenko Believes That the Forthcoming Russia-EU Summit Due to Be Held in Paris Will Be Very Fruitful,” RIA Novosti, 28 September 2000.
133.
Khodorovskii and Bushueva, “Plan Prodi.”
134.
Between 1992 and 2002, total foreign direct investment in Russia amounted to a mere 23 billion dollars. Conversely, a staggering 245 billion dollars left the country, see: European Commission, “Communication from President Prodi, Vice President de Palacio and Commissioner Patten to the Commission—the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue,” 3; “Communication from the Commission to the Council and to the European Parliament—Our Relations with Russia,” (Brussels: European Commission, 2004).
135.
Vladimir Putin, “Excerpts from an Address to the International Conference PSA-2000,” (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk: President of the Russian Federation, 2000); Interfax, “EC Member Stats Russia Could Play Key Role in European Energy,” Interfax, 9 October 2000.
136.
Author’s interview with Russian Official A.
137.
Kommersant, “Herman Gref poliubil “Rosneft’”,” Kommersant, 10 October 2000.
138.
Ibid.
139.
Zhiznin, Energy Diplomacy: Russia and the World, 285.
140.
Author’s interview with Stanislav Zhiznin.
141.
Author’s interview with Russian Official A.
142.
Elizabeth LeBras, “EU Looks to Russia To Solve Fuel Woes,” The Moscow Times, 10 October 2000.
143.
Andrei Konoplyanik, “Tsena ‘plana Prodi’,” Vedomosti, 27 October 2000.
144.
Author’s interview with Russian Official A.
145.
European Investment Bank, “External Lending Mandate 2000–2007,” (Brussels: European Investment Bank, 2000).
146.
European Commission, “Country Strategy Paper 2002–2006, National Indicative Programme 2002–2003, Russian Federation,” 16.
147.
Author’s interview with Stanislav Zhiznin.
148.
Vladimir Lenin, “Liberal’noe razvrashchenie rabochikh,” Put’ Pravdy, 13 February 1914; “Razvrashchenie rabochikh utonchennym natsionalizmom,” Put’ Pravdy, 10 March 1914.
149.
“Luchshe men’she, da luchshe,” Pravda, 4 March 1923.
150.
In 2000, the year the Energy Dialogue was initiated, Russia was ranked as number 82 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), whereas in 2011 it was ranked as number 143—four places up from the 2008 post-Soviet low of 147—placing it on equal footing with countries such as Belarus, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Uganda; see Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index (Berlin: Transparency International, 2012).
151.
Iurii Moiseevich Eskin, Mestnichestvo v Rossii XVI-XVII vv: khronologicheskii reestr (Moscow: Arkheograficheskiy tsentr, 1994).
152.
Putin, “Poslanie Federal’nomu Sobraniiu Rossiiskoi Federatsii.”
153.
Lilia Shevtsova, Putin’s Russia (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005).
154.
Sakwa, The Crisis of Russian Democracy, the Dual State, Factionalism, and the Medvedev Succession.
155.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
156.
Vladimir Milov, Leonard L. Coburn, and Igor Danchenko, “Russia’s Energy Policy, 1992–2005,” Eurasian Geography and Economics 47, no. 3 (2006): 287.
157.
Zhiznin, Energy Diplomacy: Russia and the World, 33.
158.
Bobo Lo, Russian Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era, Reality, Illusion and Mythmaking (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), 66, 68.
159.
Stefanie Ortmann, “The Russian Network State as a Great Power,” in Russia as a Network State: What Works in Russia When State Institutions Do Not?, ed. Vadim Kononenko and Arkady Moshes (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
160.
Putin, “Poslanie Federal’nomu Sobraniiu Rossiiskoi Federatsii.”
161.
Paul Cobley, “Narratology,” in The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).

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Lars-Christian U. Talseth

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Talseth, LC.U. (2017). The Narrative Dialogue (1237–2000). In: The Politics of Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33126-3_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33126-3_2
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