This research project intends to investigate a two-pronged question: 1) how the differing, imperial-like natures of Russia and the European Union (coupled with political imagination of their respective elites) make it hard for them to find an accommodation in their shared - and contested - neighborhood and 2) how the recent EU-Russia dynamics prompted Moscow policy elite to re-conceptualize Russia as a distinct civilization, apart from Europe. While exploring these issues, the project will keep a special focus on Ukraine, whose role in the Russia-Europe relationship has historically been and continues to be pivotal.