Europe’s fundamental security principles and the values of liberal democracy come increasingly under the pressure of Russia’s subversive or aggressive behavior. Crimea’s annexation and the ongoing war in Eastern Ukraine are questioning the viability of European integration project and the architecture of Euro-Atlantic peace and security (especially in the Black sea area, Baltic States and Poland).

Moreover Russia’s support for anti-immigrant, populist and extremist parties in Europe has proved its efficiency in fragmenting the European Union. The pro-Brexit vote will deepen the division of EU which is about to loose London’s strong critical voice towards Moscow. Furthermore Russia is attempting to restore its role as a leading world power. The ongoing war in Syria was skilfully used to reach this objective.

Most of the EU or NATO states lack the adequate expertise and knowledge for addressing Russia’s aggressive behavior and subversive actions.

This initiative aims to create a new basis for an enhanced and pragmatic dialogue among young experts from EU and NATO member countries and Russian Federation. A series of 5 debates with over 20 experts as panel discussants (1 Russian expert and 1 European expert for each debate) and over 100 participants as public (20 persons per debate) will be organized. The public will be selected among young Romanian decision makers, academics, experts, journalists. The event will gather academics, civil society activists, experts and journalists to mirror the current state of affairs and to draft proposals aimed at setting a new agenda for a dialogue with Russia. The events will give a background for a process of getting to know each other for Romanian and Russian young generation of experts. The initiative will also benefit the authorities from both Romania (and its Euro-Atlantic partners) and Russian Federation.

The project will be implemented from November 2016 until October 2017.