Russian Foreign Policy

Russian foreign policy has undergone substantial shifts in the post–Cold War period. Scholarly attention toward the topic has also experienced ebbs and flows as the breakup of the Soviet Union drastically decreased general interest toward a newly emerged Russia. The initial period of Russian foreign policy in the early 1990s was to a large degree a continuation of Soviet foreign policy, with its focus on cooperative relations with the West. This, in turn, combined with the general weakness of the Russian state, resulted in the relative disregard of other foreign policy directions. The deepening domestic power struggle led to a growing opposition toward the pro-Western course and paved the way for a number of domestic players to influence Russia’s foreign policy course. Vladimir Putin’s arrival to power in 2000 and the domestic changes he introduced freed foreign policy from most of its domestic constraints, at least temporarily. During his first presidential term (2000–2004), Russian foreign policy oscillated between competition with the West (the United States in particular) and attempts to integrate Russia as the West’s equal partner. The consolidation of the regime, which accelerated in Putin’s second presidential term (2004–2008), left its mark on foreign policy. Russia’s engagement with the external world underwent substantial changes, which turned out to be durable for the next decade and a half. Material resurgence, the strengthening of the state, and the domestic political consolidation fueled Russia’s assertiveness in international politics. These processes culminated in Putin’s 2007 Munich speech and the 2008 war with Georgia. The following period of the so-called tandemocracy (2008–2012), with Putin becoming prime minister and Dmitri Medvedev serving as president, led to a partial warming in relations with the West, though Russia continued its assertive policy. Russia also deepened its cooperation with a rising China. Putin’s return to power in 2012 initiated the conservative-nationalist turn in domestic politics, which was reflected in foreign policy. Russia increasingly positioned itself not only as a geopolitical challenger to the West, but also a normative one. The annexation of Crimea (2014), followed by the military intervention in Syria (2015), opened a new phase in Russian foreign policy. Moscow became bolder in using military force abroad and enlarged its presence in such regions as sub-Saharan Africa. The explanations of change and continuity in Russian foreign policy can be grouped in several camps, with scholars emphasizing power politics and external constraints, domestic politics, and the role of ideas and identity. The emerging trend is the growing popularity of pluralist explanations of Russian foreign policy.

Siberian Bukharans in Russian mission: gathering intelligence in Russia’s south-eastern borderlands, 17th-18th centuries

Siberian Bukharans were one of the most agile group of the native population of Western Siberia and the Urals in the 17th and 18th centuries. This paper analyzes information about the border activities of Bukharans, characterizes their participation in the implementation of Russian foreign policy. The author considers the phenomenon of intelligence and the intermediary and diplomatic role of the Bukharans through the study of various aspects of Russian policy on the southeastern borderlands. The result shows that Bukharans were involved in intelligence activities in several forms. The Russian authorities could interview Bukharans who came to trade; they could include Bukharans in Russian embassies; or they could send them into the steppe as independent agents. The geography of their missions in the 17th and 18th centuries included the Kuchum lands, the Kazakh khanates, the Oirat and Dzungar lands, as well as the Qing Empire. Bukharans participated in the negotiations as interpreters and they were sometimes allowed to participate in diplomatic ceremonies such as gift exchange. The intelligence activities of some Bukharans could go hand in hand with their trade operations. Recruiting Bukharans for intelligence gathering tsks allowed the Siberian and Orenburg authorities to conduct a more effective policy in the steppe borderlands, based on the knowledge of local realities. The Russian authorities used information provided by the Bukharans for purposes such as drawing up maps, informing the voivodes of the borderlands about military dangers, the movement of troops, and diplomatic negotiations.

Book review: Shiraev, E., & Khudoley, K. (2019). Russian Foreign Policy. London: Red Globe Press, 297 p.

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Prospects for Russian foreign policy in 2022

Significance Russian military deployments prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken on October 13 to reiterate the "ironclad" US commitment to Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin's main preoccupations now are Kyiv and Washington. In both foreign policy areas, Russia's comparative advantages have increased because of the energy crisis in Europe and rising US-China competition.

Academic Diplomacy in Relations between Russia and Pacific Asia countries

Analysts usually consider only strategic, geopolitical, or economic aspects of Russia’s turn to the East. Humanitarian contacts and public diplomacy, including academic diplomacy, remain mainly on the periphery of research on the Asian vector of Russian foreign policy. Despite significant achievements in educational cooperation with non-Western countries during the Soviet period, after the end of the bipolar period, Russia turned to European academic diplomacy. To some extent, it helped Russia move forward in educational and research cooperation with the EU. However, it did not help remove all the stumbling blocks on Russia’s way to internationalize its education and science. Alongside interaction with Asia, which became home to many world-class universities by the 20th and 21st centuries, Russia’s cooperation with Europe has significantly lagged.Nevertheless, as the current situation demonstrates, a more proactive Russian academic and educational diplomacy in Asia is essential for successful economic cooperation and a comprehensive Russian presence in Asia. The paper, therefore, seeks to analyze the dynamics of Russian approaches to educational diplomacy, based on the qualitative and quantitative assessments to scrutinize the main trends of the higher education development in Asia and to define the current state and prospects of Russia’s educational cooperation with Pacific Asia. The paper argues that to be successful, Russia’s turn to the East must have a better-developed educational component, which considers the newest trends of higher education development at the international level. These steps are essential for keeping Russian education competitive and implementing Russian foreign policy in the current circumstances.

Russian Foreign Policy: Three Historical Stages and Two Future Scenarios

There have been several stages in Russia’s foreign policy since 1991. From a naive and idealistic pro-Western course, to ‘getting up from its knees’, to asserting itself as an independent great power. Around 2018, this trajectory reached a plateau, with the potential for decline. Since then, Russia and the world began to face fresh challenges and an almost qualitatively different environment. Even before the start of the epidemic in 2020, it was clear that Russia required a new foreign policy, built on what had been achieved in previous decades, but geared towards the future. This would include a strong ideology, focus on internal growth and development, and the development a streamlined and more cost-effective approach to foreign policy to adjust to a more turbulent and chaotic external environment. Despite growing international chaos and unpredictability, two scenarios for Russian foreign policy are surfacing. An optimistic one in which Russia successfully adapts to these changing circumstances, and a less optimistic one where it continues its current course of internal development, failing to live up to its full potential, but nevertheless still retaining the ability to play an independent and significant role in world affairs.

Introduction

An introduction to the special issue on Russian foreign policy prepared by a team based at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. We begin with an overview of some of the contesting views about the dynamics and drivers of Russian foreign policy and some of the key theories. We then present the substantive arguments of the contributors, assessing how they fit into the overall pattern of understanding the key issues in Russian foreign policy and larger global concerns. The Introductions ends with some broader considerations, noting the tension between ‘declinist’ and ‘revivalist’ approaches to Russia today, and suggest that the contributions on the whole steer a cautious path between extreme representations of these two perspectives, while warning of the dangers of triumphalism. We argue that Russian and Russian-based views can make a specific and important contribution to larger debates about the dynamics of Russian foreign policy and Russia’s contribution to the resolution of some of the pressing issues facing humanity.

Features of the foreign policy mechanism of the Russian Federation

The article considers the problem of the stages of evolution and the main trends in the functioning of the foreign policy mechanism of the Russian Federation. The degree of influence of specific elements of the mechanism of formation and implementation of Russian foreign policy from 1991 up to the present has been characterized. It was shown that in 2000-2008 certain changes took place in the system of the state foreign policy mechanism, which were due to the specifics of the leadership style of the incumbent President and his team. By 2012, the system evolves and acquires modern features.