88Received 20.05.2024. Revised 03.06.2024. Accepted 21.06.2024.
Acknowledgements. The article was prepared with the financial support of the MGIMO Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia within the framework of the project “Contours of Destabilization in Europe: Socio-Economic, Political and Value Aspects” No. 2025-04-07.
Abstract. The article attempts to analyze the limits of stability of a unique regional formation – the Visegrad group that was founded a third of a century ago on the ruins of the socialist camp. Over the past two years, the Visegrad Quartet has been subjected to perhaps the most serious tests in the entire history of its existence, related to the divergence in approaches to the military conflict in Ukraine. The author notes that the longer the conflict lasts, the tougher the positions of Kiev’s supporters and opponents become. The population of Central European countries gets tired of the war. The regime of sanctions against Russia and the influx of refugees from Ukraine as well as from Russia and Belarus begin to affect the results of national elections in central European countries, and hence brings changes in the position of countries towards Moscow, Kiev and Brussels. For the first time, countries are facing the problem of such multifaceted pressure literally in all spheres of life, including the economy and the social sphere, which are acutely affected by the consequences of the war. Having relatively successfully overcome the global economic crisis together, turned away the migration flow from the South, stood up in the fight against COVID?19, and survived “attacks” from Brussels, the Visegrad Union now seems to have faced an existential problem of a geopolitical nature. Nevertheless, according to the author, it is too early to write an obituary on the Visegrad group. It still has certain reserves, hidden both in its genesis and structural features, which have no parallel among not only European but also world regional units. The main achievement of the Visegrad Four’s three decades of operation may be the hard-won and subsequently mastered “art of compromise”. No matter how deep the differences in the views and positions of the countries may be, the understanding of the necessity to find a compromise for the sake of preserving the unity of the region always prevails. In particular, the events of the last two years since February 2022, marked by a military conflict on the eastern border of the Quartet, have proved this statement.
Keywords: Visegrad group, Visegrad Four, V4, European Union, Central Europe, Ukraine, Russia, military conflict
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