Transformation of dynamics of kremlin’s gas policies towards ukraine during putin’s three terms

written by DR. EMANUELE NICOLA CECCHETTI
Università di Bologna, Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe

The aim of the research is to outline how the dynamics of Russian Federation’s gas policies have been differently applied in Ukraine with respect to the internal decisions. It will be taken into consideration the three Putin’s presidencies terms and also his Prime Minister’s term, since his influence on Russian Foreign Policy’s direction has been relevant meanwhile he was not President.
The four terms will be examined in comparison with the most relevant Ukrainian internal decisions in domestic and foreign policy, as the NATO’s talks in 2005 or European Union’s Association Agreements in 2013. Moreover, the research will also evaluate the changes of the Concept of Russian Foreign Policy and the National Security Concept of Russian Federation as the most relevant and useful documents to this research. In particular, it will be analyzed at how they have been applied to Western countries and CIS countries and how more aggressive Russian Federation became during all the time taken into consideration.
The result of all this analysis will be the confirmation that the gas sales price strictly depends on Ukraine’s regimes and that this relation creates fluctuations and also shows how the Russian influence on its neighborhood countries is still strong. This connection between years, Kiev’s decisions and prices will be clearer using the Figure 1  that has been created to make the analysis of the linkages between Russian natural gas sales prices and Ukrainian political events as clearer as possible. Instead, the Figure 2 will help a more general and simple final understanding of the relations between Ukrainian regimes and the gas prices.
Personal conclusions will be provided at the end of the paper.

Putin, presidential terms, gas sales prices, Russian foreign policy, Ukraine, energy security.

Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
1. Vladimir putin and new russian foreign policy 
2. The first putin’s mandate and the beginning of energy power as foreign policy tool: 2000 – 2004
3. The second putin’s term, 2004 - 2008: ukraine and change of russian foreign policy
4. The third putin’s term, 2012 – 2016: crisis spread out and energy tool’s efficacy
Conclusions: russia’s paranoia or motivated reactions 
Bibliography