The Political Dialogue (2001–2005)

Talseth, Lars-Christian U.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-33126-3_3

Lars-Christian U. Talseth²

631 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter explores the politics of the EU–Russia Energy Dialogue during its first years, as conflicting narratives came head to head. By politics I mean the ‘competition between competing interest groups or individuals for power and leadership’. Although Bakhtin is best known for his literary criticism, he was nonetheless a profoundly political thinker. His work reflected an inherent opposition towards positivism and political dogma—a fact that made him intolerable for the Communist authorities of the Soviet Union, which suppressed much of his work, and later sent him into exile. Reality, as per Bakhtin, was not unifying truth, but negotiated perception between bodies occupying simultaneous but different space. This could be physical bodies, political bodies or body of ideas in general, such as ideologies. For Bakhtin, the world was a collection of contesting meanings, ‘a heteroglossia so varied that no single term capable of unifying its diversifying energies is possible’. Politics, therefore, is essentially the competition and governance of subjectivities, through varying degrees of heterologue (democracy) and monologue (oligarchy and autocracy), by way of centrifugal and centripetal forces.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

eBook: USD 16.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 99.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 99.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “Politics,” in Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2012).
2.
Holquist, Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World, 22.
3.
Ibid., 24.
4.
Ibid., 34.
5.
EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, “The First Ten Years: 2000–2010,” (Brussels/Moscow: EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, 2010), 3.
6.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
7.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
8.
Author’s interview with Stanislav Zhiznin.
9.
Ivan Ivanov, “Retour sur une pétition L’Europe doit nous redécouvrir,” Le Figaro, 1 November 2000.
10.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
11.
European Commission, “Green Paper, towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply”; Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, “Osnovnye polozheniia Energeticheskoi strategii Rossii na period do 2020 goda (Protokol № 39 ot23 noiabria 2000 g.).”
12.
EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, “Summary of the Preliminary Meeting on the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue between MM Khristenko and Lamoureux,” (Brussels: EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, 2000).
13.
Vedomosti, “Energodialog Rossii i ES ubila Evrokomissiia,” Vedomosti, 27 September 2001.
14.
Author’s interviews with Christian Cleutinx; EU Official A.
15.
The Coreper minutes of November and December 2000 and January 2001 were cited during the author’s interview with EU National Official A.
16.
John Browne and Philippa Anderson, Beyond Business (London: Phoenix, 2011).
17.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
18.
Author’s interview with Dutch Industry Official.
19.
Author’s interviews with French Official A; French Official B.
20.
Author’s interview with EU National Official B [E-mail, 15.11.13].
21.
Author’s interview with Klaus Kleinekorte.
22.
European Union, “Treaty of Nice,” (Nice: Official Journal of the European Communities, 2001), see Article 175(2).
23.
Author’s interviews with Klaus Kleinekorte; French Official A; French Official B.
24.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
25.
European Commission, “Communication from President Prodi, Vice President de Palacio and Commissioner Patten to the Commission – the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue,” 1–2.
26.
“EU/Russian Federation Energy Dialogue on Track,” (Brussels: European Commission, 2001).
27.
Ibid., 2.
28.
Author’s interview with EU Official A.
29.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
30.
Pascal Lamy, “Ne ugroza, a perspektiva,” Vremia novostei, 31 August 2001.
31.
Author’s interview with Dutch Industry Official.
32.
Author’s interviews with EU Official A; Christian Cleutinx.
33.
EU-Russia Summit, “Joint Statement,” (Moscow: EU-Russia Summit, 2001).
34.
“Joint Statement,” (Brussels: EU-Russia Summit, 2001).
35.
EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, “Synthesis Report,” 4.
36.
Ibid.
37.
Author’s interview with Klaus Kleinekorte.
38.
EU-Russia Summit, “Joint Statement.”
39.
Author’s interview with French Official A.
40.
Author’s interview with Terry Adams.
41.
House of Lords, “Lords Hansard Text for 28 Jun 2001,” (London: Parliament of the United Kingdom, 2001).
42.
Author’s interviews with Klaus Kleinekorte; French Official A; Terry Adams, “EU-Russian Energy Relationships, Presentation to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI),” (London: DTI, 2001).
43.
Vladimir Putin, “Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation,” (Moscow: President of Russia Official Web Portal, 2001).
44.
“Vystuplenie V. V. Putina na otkrytii plenarnogo zasedaniia vstrechi,” (Moscow: Diplomaticheskii vestnik, 2001).
45.
Ibid.
46.
Ekaterina Labetskaia, “Zhdem vazhnykh dogovorennostei,” Vremia Novostei, 3 October 2001.
47.
State Duma of the Russian Federation, “Parlamentskie slushaniia v Gosudarstvennoi Dume,” (Moscow: Parlamentskie slushaniia v Gosdume, 2001).
48.
ITAR-TASS, “Khristenko Calls for Broader Russia-EU Cooperation,” ITAR-TASS, 23 April 2001.
49.
Interfax, “Outgoing Russian Diplomat Reproaches European Commission for Impeding Dialogue with Moscow,” Interfax, 26 September 2001.
50.
Author’s interviews with Vladimir Milov; Russian Official A.
51.
Romanova, “The Russian Perspective on the Energy Dialogue.”
52.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
53.
Author’s interview with Stanislav Zhiznin.
54.
Ivanov, “Raschishchat’ puti k zrelomu partnerstvu Rossii i Evrosoiuza.”
55.
Ivan Ivanov, “Ne poddavaites’ na ulovki Briusselia,” Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 6 October 2002.
56.
Author’s interview with Stanislav Zhiznin.
57.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
58.
Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, “Osnovnye polozheniia Energeticheskoi strategii Rossii na period do 2020 goda (Protokol № 39 ot23 noiabria 2000 g.),” 10.
59.
Author’s interview with Alexei Mastepanov, former Head of the Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex Strategic Development, Russian Ministry of Energy, and former Russian coordinator of the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue [Moscow, 09.12.12].
60.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
61.
Alexander Tutushkin and Yulia Bushueva, “Energy Ministry Losing Important Responsibility,” The Moscow Times, 12 August 2000; Zoia Kaika, “Bystroe dvizhenie k neizvestnomu,” Vedomosti, 27 April 2001.
62.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
63.
Thane Gustafson, Wheel of Fortune, the Battle for Oil and Power in Russia (Cambridge, Mass.; London: Belknap, 2012), 260, 265.
64.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
65.
Putin, “Poslanie Federal’nomu Sobraniiu Rossiiskoi Federatsii.”
66.
Sakwa, The Crisis of Russian Democracy, the Dual State, Factionalism, and the Medvedev Succession.
67.
Shevtsova, Russia Lost in Transition, see Chapter One.
68.
Richard Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s choice (London: Routledge, 2008), 74–75; Shevtsova, Putin’s Russia, 87.
69.
Andrei Illarionov, “The Siloviki in Charge,” Journal of Democracy 20, no. 2 (2009).
70.
Shevtsova, Putin’s Russia, 22–25.
71.
Ol’ga Kryshtanovskaya and Stephen White, “Inside the Putin Court, a Research Note,” Europe-Asia Studies 57, no. 7 (2005): 1073.
72.
Daniel Treisman, “Putin’s Silovarchs,” Orbis-a Journal of World Affairs, no. Winter (2007).
73.
Shevtsova, Putin’s Russia, 325; Sakwa, The Crisis of Russian Democracy, the Dual State, Factionalism, and the Medvedev Succession, 124–25.
74.
Ignatova, “Viktor Khristenko: Poka my samoedskaia derzhava.”
75.
Nadezhda Ivanitskaia and Kira Latukhina, “Pravitel’stvo partii,” Vedomosti, 16 April 2008.
76.
Sakwa, The Crisis of Russian Democracy, the Dual State, Factionalism, and the Medvedev Succession, 89.
77.
Author’s interview with Dutch Industry Official; Alena Ledeneva, “From Russia with Blat: Can Informal Networks Help Modernize Russia?,” Social Research 76, no. 1 (2009); Shevtsova, Putin’s Russia, 86, 298, 325.
78.
Kryshtanovskaya and White, “Inside the Putin Court, a Research Note,” 1073.
79.
Cameron Ross, Regional Politics in Russia (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009).
80.
Shamil Yenikeyeff, “Oil and the Corporate Re-Integration of Russia: The Role of Federal Oil Companies in Russia’s Center-Periphery Relations,” in Problems Confronting Contemporary Democracies: Essays in Honor of Alfred Stepan, ed. Scott Mainwaring and Douglas Chalmers (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012).
81.
Oxana Gaman-Golutvina, “Changes in Elite Patterns,” Europe-Asia Studies 60, no. 6 (2008): 1039; Sakwa, The Crisis of Russian Democracy, the Dual State, Factionalism, and the Medvedev Succession, 132.
82.
Author’s interview with Dutch Industry Official.
83.
Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy, Mr. Putin, Operative in the Kremlin (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2013).
84.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
85.
Author’s interviews with Yuri Baron, Deputy Director, Department of State Energy Policy, Russian Ministry of Energy [Moscow, 28.02.12]; Russian Official C.
86.
Ignatova, “Viktor Khristenko: Poka my samoedskaia derzhava.”
87.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
88.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
89.
Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s choice, 72.
90.
Mikhail Kroutikhin, “Energy Policy Making in Russia: from Putin to Medvedev,” NBR Analysis 19, no. 2 (2008): 28.
91.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
92.
Author’s interview with EU Official B [Brussels, 11.09.12].
93.
Vladimir Putin, “Vystuplenie V. V. Putina na press-konferentsii Parizh, 15 ianvaria,” (Moscow: Diplomaticheskii vestnik’, 2002).
94.
Interfax, “Outgoing Russian Diplomat Reproaches European Commission for Impeding Dialogue with Moscow.”
95.
Putin, Vladimir. 2002c. Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Moscow: President of Russia. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/21567.
96.
EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, “Working Group on ‘Infrastructure and Technology’, Joint Minutes on the Meeting,” (Moscow: EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, 2001), see Annex 2.
97.
Zhiznin, Energy Diplomacy: Russia and the World, 286–7.
98.
EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, “Joint Minutes of the Second Meeting of the Thematic Expert Group ‘Energy Strategies and Balances’,” (Moscow: EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, 2001), 5–6.
99.
Ibid.
100.
Gerhard Schröder, “Deutsche Russlandpolitik – europäische Ostpolitik,” Die Zeit, 5 April 2001; Jack Straw, “EU-Russia Relations, 3rd Report, 17 December 2002, HL Paper 29,” (London: House of Lords, 2002).
101.
EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, “Group ‘Energy Efficiency and Environment’, Minutes of the 2nd Meeting,” (Brussels: EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, 2001), 1.
102.
Vedomosti, «Energodialog Rossii i ES ubila Evrokomissiia.»
103.
Viktor Khristenko, “Kruglogo stola promyshlennikov Rossii i ES,” PravoTEK, no. 10 November (2004).
104.
Author’s interview with Stanislav Zhiznin.
105.
EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, “Second Progress Report,” (Brussels/Moscow: EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, 2002), 1.
106.
Ibid.
107.
EU-Russia Summit, “Joint Statement,” (Moscow: EU-Russia Summit, 2002).
108.
Vladimir Ryzhkov, “Aktsenty Vladimira Putina,” Vedomosti, 23 May 2002.
109.
Ivan Ivanov, “La Russie et l’Europe : des actes,” Les Echos, 27 May 2002.
110.
Ibid.
111.
Ibid.
112.
Zoia Kaika, “TPP vybrala zhertvy,” Vedomosti, 5 February 2002.
113.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
114.
Alexander Becker, “Ot slov k delu,” Vremia MN, 29 May 2002.
115.
Igor Yurgens, “Most istoricheskogo znacheniia,” Vedomosti, 11 November 2002.
116.
Ivanov, “Ne poddavaites’ na ulovki Briusselia.”
117.
VTsIOM, “Rossiiane ob otnosheniiakh s evropoi,” ed. VTsIOM (2003).
118.
Zygar, Mikhail. 2016. All the Kremlin’s Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin. New York, NY: PublicAffairs, p. 110.
119.
Pierre Collignon, “Prodi: EU skal have en grænse,” Jyllands-Posten, 26 November 2002.
120.
Ivan Ivanov, “Khromaia sila,” Nezavisimaia gazeta, 16 December 2002.
121.
EU-Russia Summit, “Joint Statement.”
122.
European Parliament, “European Parliament Resolution on the EU-Russia Summit,” ed. European Parliament (2002).
123.
European Council, “Relations with Russia,” (Sevilla: European Council, 2002), 3.
124.
Author’s interview with Klaus Kleinekorte.
125.
Council of the European Union, “2465th Council Meeting – Transport, Telecommuncations and Energy,” (Brussels: Council of the European Union, 2002), 14–16.
126.
Straw, “EU-Russia Relations, 3rd Report, 17 December 2002, HL Paper 29.”
127.
Author’s interviews with Klaus Kleinekorte; EU National Official C [Phone, 24.09.12].
128.
Der Spiegel, “Moscow Mon Amour: Gerhard Schroeder’s Dangerous Liaison,” Der Spiegel, 1 December 2004.
129.
President of Russia, “Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair Opened a Russian-British Energy Conference,” (London: President of Russia, 2003).
130.
Agence France Presse, “EU Membership Is Next Step for Russia After NATO: Berlusconi,” Agence France Presse, 26 May 2002.
131.
President of Russia, “Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair Opened a Russian-British Energy Conference.”
132.
Author’s interview with Stanislav Zhiznin.
133.
Nikolai Mironov, “Rossiia-ES: edinstvo i bor’ba,” Neft’ Rossii, 8 August 2004.
134.
Author’s interview with Alexei Mastepanov.
135.
Author’s interviews with Stanislav Zhiznin; Christian Cleutinx.
136.
Author’s interview with Vladimir Milov.
137.
Illarionov, “The Siloviki in Charge.”
138.
OECD, Russian Federation, Progress and Reform Challenges (Paris: OECD, 2004), 11.
139.
Nikolai Mironov, Mezhdunarodnaia energeticheskaia bezopasnost’ (Moscow: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2003), 11.
140.
Ivan D. Ivanov, “E dinyi vnutrennii rynok es: svet, teni, istoricheskaia perspektiva,” Sovremennaia Evropa, no. 2 (2004): 27.
141.
Author’s interview with Stanislav Zhiznin.
142.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
143.
Author’s interviews with Stanislav Zhiznin; EU Official A.
144.
EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, “Fourth Progress Report,” (Moscow/Brussels: EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, 2003), 6.
145.
RIA Novosti, “Russian-EU Energy Dialogue to Aim at Creating United Europe.”
146.
Author’s interview with Christian Cleutinx.
147.
EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, “Fifth Progress Report,” (Moscow/Brussels: EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, 2004).
148.
BBC, “Berlusconi Breaks EU Ranks on Russia,” BBC, 6 November 2003.
149.
Der Spiegel, “Moscow Mon Amour: Gerhard Schroeder’s Dangerous Liaison.”
150.
Author’s interviews with EU National Official A; Dutch Industry Official.
151.
Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, “Brief van der minister van economische zaken,” (Den Haag: Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal, 2004), 9.
152.
Author’s interviews with Christian Cleutinx; Klaus Kleinekorte; Stanislav Zhiznin; Dutch Industry Official; EU Official A.
153.
Dieter Helm, “European Energy Policy: Securing Supplies and Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change,” 25 October (2005).
154.
Tony Blair, “EU Informal Summit: UK Prime Minister Tony Blair Emphasises the Need for a Common European Energy Grid,” (Hampton Court: European Council, 2005).
155.
Malcolm Wicks, “House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 13 Jun 2005 (pt 21),” (London: House of Commons, 2005).
156.
EU-Russia Summit, “16th EU-Russia Summit,” (London: Council of the European Union, 2005).
157.
Author’s interview with EU Official A.
158.
Peter Mandelson, The Third Man (London: Harper Press, 2011), 393.
159.
Blair, A Journey, 537.
160.
Author’s interview with EU Official B.
161.
The Economist, “Charlemagne: Whipping the Commission into Shape,” The Economist, 17 November 2005.
162.
Directorate General of Energy and Transport, “Repertoire of the Acquis Communautaire,” (Brussels: European Commission, 2004).
163.
Financial Times, “Brussels Shuffles the Eurocrat Pack,” Financial Times, 11 August 2005.
164.
George Parker, “Inside Brussels: Right Turn Ahead,” ibid., 10 November.
165.
Daily Telegraph, “Thatcherites Gaining Ground in Brussels Ageing Francophiles Are Being Purged as the EU Tries to Get Back to Basics,” Daily Telegraph, 10 November 2005.
166.
Le Figaro, “Les Français perdent des postes clés à Bruxelles,” Le Figaro, 9 November 2005.
167.
Lamy, “Homme aux convictions profondes il fut l’un des bâtisseurs de l’Union européenne.”
168.
Ibid.
169.
Jean Quatremer, “Mort d’un Européen,” Coulisses de Bruxelles, 27 August 2006.
170.
Author’s interviews with EU Industry Official A; EU Official A.
171.
Author’s interview with EU Official B.
172.
Loyola de Palacio del Valle-Lersundi, “Shaping Russian-European Integration in the 21st Century, Speech to the European Business Club conference,” (Brussels: European Commission, 2002), 2.
173.
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 2006).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Defense Staff Norway, Oslo, Norway
Lars-Christian U. Talseth

Authors

Lars-Christian U. Talseth
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Talseth, LC.U. (2017). The Political Dialogue (2001–2005). In: The Politics of Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33126-3_3

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33126-3_3
Published: 25 January 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-33125-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-33126-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics