Russian Borderlands in Crisis: Assessing Geopolitical Change in the Eastern Baltic 2008-2022

This project aims to examine the recent geopolitical changes in Russia's western borderland between 2008-2022. In particular, it attempts to answer the question(s) of what went wrong at the EU-Russia level and what are the consequences for the Eastern Baltic? The research will closely examine the implications of the Russo-Georgian War in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the security challenges stemming from Syrian migration in 2015 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The conceptual framework for this research project comes from critical work in Border Studies and concentrates on the everyday processes of border-making such as border infrastructure and cross-border traffic as well as state policies of 're-bordering'. The research methodology will be qualitative in nature-combining elite interviews conducted during a period of fieldwork in the border regions of Poland and Lithuania with the interpretation of political statements and media representations, while the data collection and analysis will draw on case study research. This data will be used to further knowledge of borderlands and its people by providing new empirical insights into the evolution of the Russian-European borderland. This is particularly important in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has once again led to the borderland becoming a flashpoint of insecurity between Russia and the West.