■ 3 February 2010 (Wednesday @ 12.00): Anastassia Obydenkova (CEPC): The EU's Influence on Transition in Russia: The Role of External Regionalization in Sub-National Democratization

Discussant: Noé Cornago Prieto, UPV-EHU.

Anastassia Obydenkova is García Pelayo Fellow at the Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales. Her research falls at the intersection of several themes: International Relations theory, multi-level governance, regionalism, integration, EU studies and the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy, the development of post-Soviet Eurasian states and the role of external actors (for instance, the EU) in their development.

Noé Cornago Prieto is Associate Professor in International Relations in the Department of International Public Law, International Relations and History of Law at the University of the Basque Country. He has published widely on democracy, federalism and international relations.

Abstract:
The 1990s is a unique period in the history of Russia when its regions received for the first time in a century the opportunity to develop a foreign policy. This is also a period of democratization of the country. The paper aims to address the puzzle of regional regime disparities by analyzing a number of external factors and conducting quantitative analysis. The results of this study demonstrate the significance of the EU-related external factors in the establishment of political regimes in the regions. Moreover, the impact of other explanatory variables was also tested in an attempt to explain regional regime disparities.