Russia started to export hydrocarbons to Western Europe in the middle of the Cold War, and for a long time, despite their ideological differences, Russia was considered to be a reliable energy supplier. Starting from the early 2000s, EU-Russia energy relations were transformed from a mainly economic dimension to a political one. Currently, energy trade is seen as part of national security for both Russia and the European Union (EU). The central question of this study: is how EU-Russia energy relations have become highly securitised? This thesis approaches this problem from the perspective of a critical reading of securitisation theory. Following Balzacq (2005) and Fierke (2007), the securitisation process is de-constructed into the follows elements: securitisation actors (in Russia and in the EU), the speech act (negotiation of energy security to the audience), context of securitising (economic, political, and cultural), the consequences of securitisation, and the potential for de-securitisation. The thesis applies combination of quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. The thesis uses an interpretive constructivist account and a methodology which integrates that theory with the specific methods of inquiry. It uses some quantitative analysis, but rests primarily on a qualitative approach consistent with its roots in the Critical Security Studies (CSS) literature
