Andrey Makarychev is Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Institute for East European Studies, Free University of Berlin. His fields of academic research include Russian foreign and security policies, EU-Russian relations, issues of regionalism and federalism.André Mommen obtained a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Free University Brussels, Belgium, where he went on to lecture, before moving to the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Today he is working as a consultant.

• Editors’ preface Introduction Andrey Makarychev and André Mommen 1. Master Signifier in decay: evolution of Russian political discourse since Putin’s comeback Andrey Devyatkov 2. New media and the political protest: the formation of a public counter-sphere in Russia of 2008-12 Svetlana S. Bodrunova and Anna A. Litvinenko 3.Russian identity after the fall of the USSR. From generation “П” to generation “T” (“Transnational”)? Sergey Akopov 4. Foreign policies of Putin’s regime: strategies of politicization and depoliticization Andrey Makarychev 5..Modes of integration in the world economy: the case of Russia under Putin Hans van Zon 6. New trends in Russia’s energy policy? Ekaterina Demakova 7.Modernization in Russian relations with EU member states: conventional goal, new means, unexpected consequences? Tatiana Romanova and Elena Pavlova 8. On the normative gap in the EU-Russia relations Anastasia Stepanovich 9. From multi-vector to vectorless: Ukraine’s policy towards Russia and the EU Elena Gnedina and Evghenia Sleptsova 10. The German-Russian dialogue and the economic interaction Leyli Rustamova 11. China and Russia: globalizing partners in trade? André Mommen 12. Another face of glocalization: cities going international (the case of North-Western Russia) Alexander Sergunin and Pertti Joenniemi 13. Quality of governance, globalization and regional inequality: the Russian case Irina Busygina and Mikhail Filippov 14.The future of Putinism Andrey Makarychev and André Mommen