This book focuses on the difficulties facing Russia, Ukraine and Belarus with regard to their integration into both the CIS and the encroaching EU. It analyzes the links between the integration mechanisms of the CIS and EU and the various state policies towards, and the elite interests in, the territory of the former Soviet Union.Introduction PART I: IN PURSUIT OF INTEGRATION IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE The Post-Soviet Space: From the USSR to the Commonwealth of Independent States and Beyond; I.Kobrinskaya Russian Approaches to Integration in the Post-Soviet Space in the 2000s; E.Vinokurov Russia's Pursuit of its Eurasian Security Interests: Weighing the CIS and Alternative Bilateral-Multilateral Arrangements; J.Willerton & M.Beznosov PART II: THE EU AND THE POST-SOVIET SPACE The Clash of Integration Processes? The Shadow Effect of the Enlarged EU on its Eastern Neighbours; T.Casier EU Policies towards Russia: Secondary Integration by Association?; H.Moroff EU- Russia Relations in EU Neighbourhood Policies; M.Vahl PART III: PATTERNS OF INTEGRATION Parallels and Divergences of Integration in Ukraine and Belarus; L.Verpoest Patterns of Integration and Regime Compatibility: Ukraine between the CIS and the EU; R.Dragneva & A.Dimitrova Integration by Absorption: New Subjects for the Russian Federation; G.Kurdiukov & K.Malfliet The EU-Russia Common Economic Space and the Policy-Taker Problem; E.Vinokurov Conclusion: Challenges of Integration: the EU, the CIS and RussiaMIKHAIL A. BEZNOSOV Ph.D. candidate in political science, University of Arizona, Tucson, USATOM CASIER Assistant Professor and Programme Director of the MA in European Studies, University of Maastricht, The NetherlandsANTOANETA L. DIMITROVA Lecturer, Department of Public Administration, University of Leiden, The NetherlandsRILKA DRAGNEVA Institute of East European Law and Russian Studies, University of Leiden, The NetherlandsIRINA KOBRINSKAYA Executive Director of the Foundation for Prospective Studl3p