REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

478
Remembrance in Time
to Western Europe, they represented only a small percentage of Western Europe's
substantial fuel imports: Soviet oil provided 3 percent and natural gas 2 percent of the
energy consumed in Western Europe. The completion of the Urengoy-Uzhgorod
export pipeline project increased the importance of Soviet natural gas to Western
Europe in the second half of the 1980s. In 1984 France, Austria, the Federal Republic
of Germany began receiving natural gas from western Siberia through the pipeline, for
which the Soviet Union was paid by hard currency, pumping equipment, and largediameter
pipelines. By 1990 the Soviet Union expected to supply 3 percent of all
natural gas imported by Western Europe, including 30 percent of West Germany's gas
imports. 5
Despite the poor relations between the superpowers in the early and mid-1980s,
Western Europe tried to improve international relations with the Soviet Union. One major
step in this direction was the normalization of relations between Comecon and the
European Economic Community (EEC). After the start of the Cold War in the late 1940s,
the USSR conducted most of its foreign trade with other Communist countries and tried
to make the bloc of Communist countries in Eastern Europe and Asia economically
independent of the West. Beginning in the 1960s the Soviet leadership sought more
Western technology and grain to compensate for the shortcomings of the USSR’s planned
economy, but in the 1980s the other members of the Soviet-led Council for Mutual
Economic Assistance (COMECON) still accounted for almost two-thirds of Soviet
foreign trade. Like other Soviet economic activities, foreign trade was centrally planned
and administered. 6
II. Changes in the foreign trade after USSR collapse
After the breakup of the USSR, these patterns changed. Russia’s foreign trade volume
declined sharply and after the breakup of the USSR, reformers in the Yeltsin government
sought to integrate Russia into the global economy. Since the nineties, Russia has
changed and its partnerships have evolved. While the soviet foreign trade played only a
minor role in the Soviet economy, nowadays it becomes the key sector of the russian
economy. In the international economic relationships we can discern two main vectors:
one is the EU and the other one is the post soviet region. Russia and Europe have
structured and increased their cooperation in the last decade, and some Europeans are
advocating closer cooperation with Russia. At the same time, Russia has reinforced its
cooperation with the two fastest growing nations, India and China. A question therefore
arises: to which extent could Russia's stronger cooperation with India and China affect
future European–Russian cooperation? As a whole the diversification of Russia’s
partnerships could be beneficial to European-Russian relations and give them a sounder
basis, as Moscow has not shown less interest for Europe and its foreign policy has
become more balanced and less exclusive 7 .
5 http://www.mongabay.com/history/soviet_union/soviet_union-western_europe.html
6 http://www.marines.mil/news/publications/Documents/Soviet%20Union%20Study_9.pdf
7 http://www.countriesquest.com/europe/russia/economy/foreign_economic_relations_trade_and_in
vestment.htm