Can multilateral diplomatic efforts coexist with equivalent bilateral efforts? While there has been a lot of research on European foreign policy, there has been much less on the role of national foreign policies in EU foreign policy. Focussing on Europe's relations with Russia, this book offers a detailed analysis of the role of national foreign policies in EU foreign policy. It examines the national foreign policies of all 27 EU member states with Russia, the bilateral relationship and the impact on EU's foreign policy. The authors provide deep insights into the relationship between individual states looking at a range of policy areas: economics, trade, energy, security, culture and education. They are not only interested in examining policy failure but also probing the possibilities of seeing national foreign policies and the bilateralism with third parties that they often entail as a potentially positive resource for the European Union. As Russia is an example of a harder case for EU foreign policy, this book yields important insights concerning the possibilities as well as limits of developing a common EU policy in the future. It will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, EU Studies, Russian politics, foreign policy studies and international politics.