A New Cold Turned Hot War?

 

A new Hot-Cold War has erupted, with Russia posing a threat to the liberal international order. 

Little has changed in the general relationship between Russia and the West in the more than half-decade since the onset of the Ukrainian conflict, Russia's military action, and the application of Western sanctions against Russia. 

In reality, ties have deteriorated as Russia continues to intervene in Ukraine and meddles more heavily in the internal politics of Western democracies. 

Despite the drop in international energy prices and the expenses associated with European Union and US sanctions, the Russian economy seemed to recover prior to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, with an annual growth rate of 1.5–2.5 percent ("Russia: Real GDP" 2020). 

More importantly, the sanctions and the resulting internal economic woes in Russia have not persuaded Russia's political leadership to make a meaningful adjustment in the country's foreign policy. 

Indeed, Moscow's muscular actions in Ukraine, as well as more lately in Syria, have become a significant aspect of the Putin regime's drive to re-establish Russia's status as a great power and, as a result, enhance its political support among a broad segment of the populace (Berryman 2017). 

Russian ties with the United States and the European Union have deteriorated dramatically since the turn of the century, as this chapter demonstrates. 

President Putin is determined to restore Russia's dominance in regional and global affairs. 

"Strengthening the country's defense, ensuring the inviolability of the Russian Federation's constitutional order, sovereignty, independence, and national and territorial integrity," according to the 2015 Security Strategy, and "consolidating the Russian Federation's status as a leading world power, whose actions aim to maintain strategic stability and mutually beneficial partnerships in a polycentric world" (Russian Federation 2015). 

Given the Russian political elite's aim of re-establishing Russia's status as a global power and maintaining control over the Russian internal political system, forceful nationalism has become a key tool in achieving both of those goals. 

The European Union, which was formerly seen as a benign actor in Moscow, is now seen as a rival for influence in post-Soviet territory and a hindrance to Russia's efforts to reclaim its position as the dominating actor in Eurasia and a key role in world affairs. 

This rivalry, as well as the possibility of a domestic political challenge to Putin's leadership, is at the heart of the conflict that erupted in Ukraine in 2013–2014 and continues to sour ties four years later. 

The chances of a meaningful improvement in ties in the near future are slim, since Russia's long-term aims and those of the European Union remain at odds. 

The Russian leadership's determination to reclaim power throughout much of Eurasia is at odds with the EU's goal of spreading its influence into the post-Soviet region, as well as the more general goal of sustaining the liberal international order that has dominated for the last quarter-century. 

Moscow does not recognize the basic values that underpin the present international order, as different members of the Russian leadership have made plain in recent years, and will do all it can to destroy it (Kanet 2018b). 

Russia has used military interventions in Georgia and Ukraine, cyber-attacks against a variety of post-communist states (Imeson 2019), support for radical nationalist groups in EU member countries, and meddling in democratic elections in Europe and North America to weaken the Western-dominated international system. 

The conflict between Russia and the United States and the European Union will continue until one side or the other abandons some of the objectives that have been central to its policy – in effect, its sense of identity – something that seemed unlikely until President Donald Trump's election cast doubt on virtually every aspect of US foreign policy. 

Let me return to the subject of the elements that shape Russian foreign and security policy before quickly commenting on the effect of Trump's victory and administration. 

External factors, such as Western efforts to extend their influence eastward into former Soviet-controlled areas, have been important, as discussed above, because it has allowed Putin and other Russian leaders to portray Western actions as a threat to overall Russian security as part of their effort to consolidate domestic support. 

Officially, Russian strategic culture has evolved from an emphasis on domestic issues and possible cooperation with the West a quarter-century ago to a focus on external dangers, almost all of which are said to originate in the West. 

But, more importantly than Western behavior, the Putin leadership's dedication to preserving power and the exploitation of Western actions to develop home support for a more aggressive foreign policy and more restricted, even authoritarian, internal control has been more essential.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read and learn more about Global Geo Politics, Conflicts, And Conflict Resolution here.

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References & Further Reading

Abramov, Roman and A. A. Chistiakova (2012). “Nostal'nicheskie Reprezentatsii Pozdnego Sovetskogo Periodav Media Proektakh L.Parfenova: Povolnam KollektivnoIpamiati.” Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal issledovanii kul'tury, 1, pp. 52–58. http://culturalresearch.ru/files/open_issues/01_2012/IJCR_01(6)_2012_abram_chist.pdf. 

Adomeit, Hannes (1995). “Russia as a ‘Great Power’ in World Affairs: Images and Reality.” International Affairs 71, no. 1, pp. 35–68. 

Akchurina, Viktoria, and Vincent Della Sala (2018). “Russia, Europe and the Ontological Security Dilemma: Narrating the Emerging Eurasian Space,” Europe Asia Studies, 70, no. 10, pp. 1638–1655. Published online: December 24, 2018. 

Aksakov, Konstantin (1966). “On the Internal State of Russia,” in M. Raeff, ed., Russian Intellectual History: An Anthology. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, pp. 231–251. 

Billington, James H. (2004). Russia in Search of Itself. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. 

Boym. Svetlana (1995). “From the Russian Soul to Post-Communist Nostalgia.” Representations, 49, pp. 133–166. DOI: 10.2307/2928753. 

Burton, Robert A. (2009). On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. New York: Macmillan. 

Cherniavsky, Michael (1959). “Khan or Basileus: An Aspect of Russian Mediaeval Political Theory.” Journal of the History of Ideas 20, no. 4, pp. 459–476. 

Danilevskii, Nikolai (1869). “ Rossiia i Evropa”, Zaria, pp. 1–10. 

David-Fox, Michael (2015). Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 

Della Sala, Vincent and Viktoria Akchurina (2019). “Love and Fear in the Neighbourhood: Emotions and Ontological Security in Foreign Policy Analysis.” APSA Preprints. Working Paper. doi: 10.33774/apsa-2019-dzv4j. 

Forsberg, Tuomas (2014). “Status Conflicts Between Russia and the West: Perceptions and Emotional Biases.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47, no. 3, pp. 323–331. 

Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 

Gorbachev, Oleg (2015). “The Namedni Project and the Evolution of Nostalgia in post-Soviet Russia.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 57, no. 3-4, pp. 180–194. 30 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Gumilëv, Lev (1990). Nikolaevič. Ėtnogenez i biosfera Zemli. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. 

Grimes, William (2018). “Richard Pipes, Historian of Russia and Reagan Aide, Dies at 94.” The New York Times, May 17, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/obituaries/richard-pipes-historian-of-russia-and-reagan-aide-dies-at-94.html. 

Hankiss, Agnes (1981). “Ontologies of the Self: On the Mythological Rearranging of One’s Life History,” in D. Bertaux, ed., Biography and Society. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 

Hansen, Flemming Splidsboel (2016). “Russia’s Relations with the West: Ontological Security Through Conflict.” Contemporary Politics, 22, no. 3, pp. 359–375. 

Hopf, Ted (2002). Social Construction of International Politics: Identities & Foreign Policies, Moscow, 1955 and 1999. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

Hosking, Geoffrey (1995). “The Freudian Frontier.” Times literary supplement, TLS 4797, p. 27. 

Kanet, Roger E. ed. (2007). Russia: Re-emerging Great Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Kanet, Roger E. (2019). “Russian Strategic Culture, Domestic Politics and Cold War 2.0.” European Politics and Society, 20, no. 2, pp. 190–206. 

Kanet, Roger E. and Susanne M. Birgerson (1997). “The Domestic-Foreign Policy Linkage in Russian Politics: Nationalist Influences on Russian Foreign Policy.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 30, no. 4, pp. 35–44. 

Kliuchevskii, V. O. (1937). Kurs russkoi istorii, 5 vols. Moscow: Gos. Sots. Ekon. Izdatel’stvo. 

Kotkin, Stephen (2016). “Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics: Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern.” Foreign Affairs, 95, p. 2. 

Kononenko, Vadim (2011). “Introduction,” in Vadim Kononenko and Arkady Moshes, eds. Russia as a Network State. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, p. 6. Kozyrev, Andrei (1994). “The Lagging Partnership.” Foreign Affairs, 73, no. 3, pp. 59–71. 

Krashennikova, Veronica (2007). America - Russia: Cold War of Cultures: How American Values Refract Vision of Russia. Moscow: Ltd. Labirintru. 

LeDoux, Joseph E. (2003). Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. London: Penguin. 

Leichtova, Magda (2014). Misunderstanding Russia: Russian Foreign Policy and the West. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 

Levada Center (2015). “Russian Participation in the Syrian Military Conflict,” June 16. http://www.levada.ru/en/2015/11/06/russian-participation-in-the-syrian-military-conflict/print/. 

Levada Center (2014). “68% of Russian Citizens Consider Russia a Superpower. In Levada-Center, December 23. http://www.levada.ru/eng/68-russian-citizens-consider-russia-superpower. 

Levada Center (2020). “Levada Center: 25 Percent of Russians Favor Constitutional Changes; 65 Percent Don’t Understand Them,” Open Media, February 28. https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/02/28/levada-center-25-percent-of-russians-favor-constitutional-changes-65-percent-don-t-understand-them. 

Lipman, Maria (2016). “How Putin Silences Dissent: Inside the Kremlin’s Crackdown.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 38–46. Russia’s self-image 31 

Mankoff, Jeffrey (2009). Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 

Mitzen, Jennifer (2006). “Anchoring Europe’s Civilizing Identity: Habits, Capabilities and Ontological Security 1.” Journal of European Public Policy, 13, no. 2, pp. 270–285. 

Moulioukova, Dina, with Roger E. Kanet (2020). “Assertive Foreign Policy Despite Diminished Capabilities: Russian Involvement in Syria.” Global Affairs, 6, no. 3, pp. 247–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2020.1842787. 

Moulioukova, Dina with Roger E. Kanet (2022). “The Battle of Ontological Narratives: Russia and the Annexation of Crimea,” chapter 5 of this volume. 

Neumann, Iver B. (2008). “Russia as a Great Power, 1815–2007.” Journal of International Relations and Development, 11, no. 2, pp. 128–151. 

The Other Day 1961–2003. “Namedni 1961–2003: Nasha Era” (The other day 1961–2003: our Era). TV Series, 1997–2003. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0764146/. 

Oushakine, Serguei Alex (2007). “We’re Nostalgic but We’re Not Crazy”: Retrofitting the Past in Russia.” The Russian Review, 66, no. 3, pp. 451–482. 

Patterson, Molly and Kristen Renwick Monroe (1998). “Narrative in Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science, 1, pp. 315–331. https://doi.org/10.114 6/annurev.polisci.1.1.315. 

Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will Outlast the Master.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 10–17. 

Pipes, Richard (1996). “Russia’s Past, Russia’s Future.” Commentary, 101, no. 6, pp. 30. 

Pipes, Richard (1974). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

Pipes. Richard (1995). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Penguin Books, 2nd edn. 

Primakov, Andrei (1996). “Primakov Wants ‘Great’ Russia, but Calms West.” Reuters, January 12, 1996. 

Prizel, Ilya (1998). National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Putin, Vladimir (2005). “Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.” April 25. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/22931. 

Putin, Vladimir (2003). “Poslanie federal’nomu sobraniu Rossiiskoi federatsii,” May 16. http://pravdaoputine.ru/official-putin/putin-poslanie-federalnomu-sobraniyu-rossiyskoy-federatsii-2003-text-audio. 

Raeff, Marc (1971). “Patterns of Russian Imperial Policy Toward the Nationalities,” in Edward, Allworth, ed., Soviet Nationality Problems. New York: Columbia Press, pp. 22–42. 

Razyvayev, V. (1992). “Forecast: Sticks and Carrots – Controversial Reflections on Russian Foreign Policy. Nezavisimaya gazeta, in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, March 5, 44, no. 10, pp. 15. 

Roe, Paul (2000). “Former Yugoslavia: The Security Dilemma that Never Was?” European Journal of International Relations, 6, no. 3, pp. 373–393. 

Rossdale, Chris (2015). “Enclosing Critique: The Limits of Ontological Security.” International Political Sociology, 9, no. 4, pp. 369–386. 

Sakwa, Richard (2015). “The Death of Europe? Continental Fates after Ukraine. International Affairs, 91, no. 3, pp. 553–579. 32 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Savitskii, Petr N. (2003). “Evraziistvo.” (Eurasianism) in K. Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will OutlastKorolev, ed., Klassika Geopolitiki. XX vek (Classical Works of Geopolitics. 20th Century). Moscow: AST. Vol. 2, pp. 653–699. 

Sergeevich, Vasilii I. (1909) Drevnosti Russkogo Prava, .(St. Petersburg), 3d ed., 145. 

Steele Brent, J. (2008). Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-Identity and the IR State. Abingdon-New York: Routledge. 

Stent, Angela (2007). “Reluctant Europeans: Three Centuries of Russian Ambivalence Toward the West", in R. Legvold, ed., Russian Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century and the Shadow of the Past. New York: Columbia University Press. 

Subotić, Jelena (October 2016). “Narrative, Ontological Security, and Foreign Policy Change.” Foreign Policy Analysis, 12, no. 4, pp. 610–627. 

Surkov, Vladislav (2006). “Suverenitet—Eto Politicheskii Sinonim Konkurentosp￾osobnosti.” (Sovereignty–Is the Political Synonym for Competitiveness). Moscow: Edinaya Rossiya, p. 22. 

Thorun, Christian (2009). Explaining Change in Russian Foreign Policy: The Role of  Ideas in Post-Soviet Russia’s Conduct Towards the West. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Trenin, Dmitriĭ (2002). The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington: Carnegie Endowment. 

Trenin, Dmitri (2006). “Russia Leaves the West.” Foreign Affairs, 85, no. 4, pp. 87–96. 

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Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2014). The Strong State in Russia: Development and Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2016). Russia’s Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

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Oil Wars And The Conflict That Pit Russia Against NATO And The EU.

President Putin's assault on the US and the West in Munich marked a significant shift in Russia's Western-oriented strategy, which had been prevalent in official Russian security culture for a decade. 

External threats to Russian security have now been established as the main source of concern. 

In response to concerns from the EU and the US about the quality of Russian democracy, Moscow's leadership claimed that Russia had its own "sovereign democracy," emphasizing the sovereignty part (Gould-Davies 2016). 

As a result, Russian democracy could not be assessed by Western standards, which were mostly irrelevant to it (Herd 2009). 

It was also at this time that specific Russian policy activities started to target Western interests, frequently in reaction to perceived threats from the US and the European Union. 

The "gas wars" between Russia and Ukraine in 2006 and 2009, which resulted in natural gas cutoffs to EU member nations in the middle of winter, were the first serious conflict with the European Union. 

The Russian military involvement in Georgia in August 2008 happened between the two incidents (when the Georgian president decided to use his new NATO-built military to force the reintegration of secessionist territories). 

Furthermore, Moscow conducted economic boycotts and launched cyberattacks against new EU member states with whom it was increasingly at odds politically. 

All of these disputes stemmed from Russia's desire to halt and, if possible, reverse further Western incursion into what it saw to be its lawful sphere of influence (Kanet 2010a; Polese and Beacgáin 2011; Papert 2014). 

The problem in the "gas wars" was a long-standing disagreement over the price of Russian energy supplies to Ukraine as well as Ukrainian transit fees for Russian gas destined for Europe. 

This problem had been settled each year via discussions until the Orange Revolution and the toppling of Kyiv's pro-Russian administration. 

However, now that Ukraine has an EU-friendly administration, compromise has become more difficult, and political conflict has erupted. 

The standoff concluded in a confrontation in which Moscow accepted the political risks of failing to supply gas supplies, which resulted in the total stoppage of gas flow to Ukraine. 

Moscow's goal was to establish who was the more powerful player in the conflict. 

Russia must not seem to back down in the Ukraine issue as part of its desire to re-establish Russian supremacy in post-Soviet space, even if it meant long-term consequences in ties with the EU. 

The EU, for its part, initiated an energy diversification policy to wean itself off of Russia - a move that has only added to the worsening of relations (Umbach 2010; Moulioukova and Kanet 2017). 

In many ways, the fundamental problem that sparked Russia's five-day conflict with Georgia in August 2008 had similar origins: After the color revolutions, Russia has been more opposed to former Soviet states' incorporation into Western-dominated institutions. 

Tbilisi had elected a government devoted to stronger connections with the West, including NATO membership and wider ties with the EU, after the so-called Rose Revolution. 

These developments, according to Moscow, run opposed to Russia's objective of reclaiming a dominant position inside the former Soviet area. 

Even though NATO had not yet agreed to President Bush's request to admit Georgia in 2008, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili decided that the refurbished military provided by NATO through the Partnership for Peace Program could be used to resolve the long-standing frozen conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia (Ambrosio 2019). 

The outcome was disastrous for Georgia. 

Russian soldiers intervened and routed the newly formed Georgian army; separatist regions proclaimed formal independence, following the model of Kosovo; and Moscow acknowledged their independence. 

The Russian military intervention sent a clear message to Georgians, Ukrainians, and Americans that, after more than a decade of verbal opposition to NATO expansion, Russia was now in a position to use military means to prevent further eastward expansion of Western political and security institutions, even if it meant worsening relations with both the US and Western Europe. 

17 Several more causes contributed to the decline in East–West ties in the first decade of the twenty-first century, in addition to these general unfavorable tendencies. 

The majority of new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe carried with them fears and animosities toward Russia founded on decades, if not centuries, of previous interactions (DeBardeleben 2009; Schmidt-Felzman 2014). 

As a result, it's no wonder that Russia's readiness to intimidate and force weaker neighbors has reawakened major concerns among prospective EU members about their long-term security. 

Ethnic Russians staged public demonstrations in Tallinn and outside the Estonian embassy in Moscow in 2007, for example, when the Estonian government relocated a Soviet war monument from the center of Tallinn to its international military cemetery (Herzog 2011). 

Following this, Russian oil and coal supplies were halted, as well as a large cyber-attack that effectively shut down Estonia's information technology industry ("Bronze Meddling" 2007). 

Furthermore, after bilateral conflicts with Russia, both Poland and Lithuania utilized their veto power to delay the drafting of a new EU-Russia collaboration agreement for more than a year and a half. 

These and other concerns divided the EU and Russia during a joint conference in May 2007, preventing any substantive agreement on subjects regarded crucial by one or the other side (Dempsey 2007; Lowe 2007). 

As a result, Russian ties with the European Union and its main member nations worsened substantially throughout Putin's second term as Russian President and into the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev. 

The EU was no longer seen as a mostly inconsequential organisation that Russia could simply ignore or disregard. 

Despite the absence of a cohesive European Union strategy toward Russia during this time, the overall relationship continued to deteriorate. 

Part of this may be observed in Russian challenges to the EU's claims to moral authority, as well as accusations that the EU has double standards when it comes to human-rights rules, ethnic minorities' treatment, and economic issues (Facon 2008; Neumann 2014; Kanet 2015). 

In terms of Russia's strategic culture, the leadership has become more focused on security challenges from the West and strategies to counter them. 

Relations between the Russian Federation and the European Union were at an all-time low when Putin handed over the presidency to Dimitri Medvedev in 2008, not just as a result of general changes in East–West relations, but also for reasons unrelated to the Russo–American rivalry. 

A key characteristic of the battle was the escalating competition for regional clout. 

The general complexion of Russia–EU ties did not alter much during Medvedev's four years in office. 

However, Medvedev was able to pursue a more liberal foreign policy than his predecessor, and the two sides were able to establish an agreement on a number of areas of mutual interest, which we will explore in the next section (Trenin 2014; McFaul 2018, 76–238).

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read and learn more about Global Geo Politics, Conflicts, And Conflict Resolution here.

Find Jai on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

References & Further Reading

Abramov, Roman and A. A. Chistiakova (2012). “Nostal'nicheskie Reprezentatsii Pozdnego Sovetskogo Periodav Media Proektakh L.Parfenova: Povolnam KollektivnoIpamiati.” Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal issledovanii kul'tury, 1, pp. 52–58. http://culturalresearch.ru/files/open_issues/01_2012/IJCR_01(6)_2012_abram_chist.pdf. 

Adomeit, Hannes (1995). “Russia as a ‘Great Power’ in World Affairs: Images and Reality.” International Affairs 71, no. 1, pp. 35–68. 

Akchurina, Viktoria, and Vincent Della Sala (2018). “Russia, Europe and the Ontological Security Dilemma: Narrating the Emerging Eurasian Space,” Europe Asia Studies, 70, no. 10, pp. 1638–1655. Published online: December 24, 2018. 

Aksakov, Konstantin (1966). “On the Internal State of Russia,” in M. Raeff, ed., Russian Intellectual History: An Anthology. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, pp. 231–251. 

Billington, James H. (2004). Russia in Search of Itself. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. 

Boym. Svetlana (1995). “From the Russian Soul to Post-Communist Nostalgia.” Representations, 49, pp. 133–166. DOI: 10.2307/2928753. 

Burton, Robert A. (2009). On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. New York: Macmillan. 

Cherniavsky, Michael (1959). “Khan or Basileus: An Aspect of Russian Mediaeval Political Theory.” Journal of the History of Ideas 20, no. 4, pp. 459–476. 

Danilevskii, Nikolai (1869). “ Rossiia i Evropa”, Zaria, pp. 1–10. 

David-Fox, Michael (2015). Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 

Della Sala, Vincent and Viktoria Akchurina (2019). “Love and Fear in the Neighbourhood: Emotions and Ontological Security in Foreign Policy Analysis.” APSA Preprints. Working Paper. doi: 10.33774/apsa-2019-dzv4j. 

Forsberg, Tuomas (2014). “Status Conflicts Between Russia and the West: Perceptions and Emotional Biases.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47, no. 3, pp. 323–331. 

Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 

Gorbachev, Oleg (2015). “The Namedni Project and the Evolution of Nostalgia in post-Soviet Russia.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 57, no. 3-4, pp. 180–194. 30 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Gumilëv, Lev (1990). Nikolaevič. Ėtnogenez i biosfera Zemli. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. 

Grimes, William (2018). “Richard Pipes, Historian of Russia and Reagan Aide, Dies at 94.” The New York Times, May 17, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/obituaries/richard-pipes-historian-of-russia-and-reagan-aide-dies-at-94.html. 

Hankiss, Agnes (1981). “Ontologies of the Self: On the Mythological Rearranging of One’s Life History,” in D. Bertaux, ed., Biography and Society. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 

Hansen, Flemming Splidsboel (2016). “Russia’s Relations with the West: Ontological Security Through Conflict.” Contemporary Politics, 22, no. 3, pp. 359–375. 

Hopf, Ted (2002). Social Construction of International Politics: Identities & Foreign Policies, Moscow, 1955 and 1999. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

Hosking, Geoffrey (1995). “The Freudian Frontier.” Times literary supplement, TLS 4797, p. 27. 

Kanet, Roger E. ed. (2007). Russia: Re-emerging Great Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Kanet, Roger E. (2019). “Russian Strategic Culture, Domestic Politics and Cold War 2.0.” European Politics and Society, 20, no. 2, pp. 190–206. 

Kanet, Roger E. and Susanne M. Birgerson (1997). “The Domestic-Foreign Policy Linkage in Russian Politics: Nationalist Influences on Russian Foreign Policy.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 30, no. 4, pp. 35–44. 

Kliuchevskii, V. O. (1937). Kurs russkoi istorii, 5 vols. Moscow: Gos. Sots. Ekon. Izdatel’stvo. 

Kotkin, Stephen (2016). “Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics: Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern.” Foreign Affairs, 95, p. 2. 

Kononenko, Vadim (2011). “Introduction,” in Vadim Kononenko and Arkady Moshes, eds. Russia as a Network State. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, p. 6. Kozyrev, Andrei (1994). “The Lagging Partnership.” Foreign Affairs, 73, no. 3, pp. 59–71. 

Krashennikova, Veronica (2007). America - Russia: Cold War of Cultures: How American Values Refract Vision of Russia. Moscow: Ltd. Labirintru. 

LeDoux, Joseph E. (2003). Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. London: Penguin. 

Leichtova, Magda (2014). Misunderstanding Russia: Russian Foreign Policy and the West. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 

Levada Center (2015). “Russian Participation in the Syrian Military Conflict,” June 16. http://www.levada.ru/en/2015/11/06/russian-participation-in-the-syrian-military-conflict/print/. 

Levada Center (2014). “68% of Russian Citizens Consider Russia a Superpower. In Levada-Center, December 23. http://www.levada.ru/eng/68-russian-citizens-consider-russia-superpower. 

Levada Center (2020). “Levada Center: 25 Percent of Russians Favor Constitutional Changes; 65 Percent Don’t Understand Them,” Open Media, February 28. https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/02/28/levada-center-25-percent-of-russians-favor-constitutional-changes-65-percent-don-t-understand-them. 

Lipman, Maria (2016). “How Putin Silences Dissent: Inside the Kremlin’s Crackdown.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 38–46. Russia’s self-image 31 

Mankoff, Jeffrey (2009). Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 

Mitzen, Jennifer (2006). “Anchoring Europe’s Civilizing Identity: Habits, Capabilities and Ontological Security 1.” Journal of European Public Policy, 13, no. 2, pp. 270–285. 

Moulioukova, Dina, with Roger E. Kanet (2020). “Assertive Foreign Policy Despite Diminished Capabilities: Russian Involvement in Syria.” Global Affairs, 6, no. 3, pp. 247–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2020.1842787. 

Moulioukova, Dina with Roger E. Kanet (2022). “The Battle of Ontological Narratives: Russia and the Annexation of Crimea,” chapter 5 of this volume. 

Neumann, Iver B. (2008). “Russia as a Great Power, 1815–2007.” Journal of International Relations and Development, 11, no. 2, pp. 128–151. 

The Other Day 1961–2003. “Namedni 1961–2003: Nasha Era” (The other day 1961–2003: our Era). TV Series, 1997–2003. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0764146/. 

Oushakine, Serguei Alex (2007). “We’re Nostalgic but We’re Not Crazy”: Retrofitting the Past in Russia.” The Russian Review, 66, no. 3, pp. 451–482. 

Patterson, Molly and Kristen Renwick Monroe (1998). “Narrative in Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science, 1, pp. 315–331. https://doi.org/10.114 6/annurev.polisci.1.1.315. 

Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will Outlast the Master.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 10–17. 

Pipes, Richard (1996). “Russia’s Past, Russia’s Future.” Commentary, 101, no. 6, pp. 30. 

Pipes, Richard (1974). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

Pipes. Richard (1995). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Penguin Books, 2nd edn. 

Primakov, Andrei (1996). “Primakov Wants ‘Great’ Russia, but Calms West.” Reuters, January 12, 1996. 

Prizel, Ilya (1998). National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Putin, Vladimir (2005). “Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.” April 25. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/22931. 

Putin, Vladimir (2003). “Poslanie federal’nomu sobraniu Rossiiskoi federatsii,” May 16. http://pravdaoputine.ru/official-putin/putin-poslanie-federalnomu-sobraniyu-rossiyskoy-federatsii-2003-text-audio. 

Raeff, Marc (1971). “Patterns of Russian Imperial Policy Toward the Nationalities,” in Edward, Allworth, ed., Soviet Nationality Problems. New York: Columbia Press, pp. 22–42. 

Razyvayev, V. (1992). “Forecast: Sticks and Carrots – Controversial Reflections on Russian Foreign Policy. Nezavisimaya gazeta, in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, March 5, 44, no. 10, pp. 15. 

Roe, Paul (2000). “Former Yugoslavia: The Security Dilemma that Never Was?” European Journal of International Relations, 6, no. 3, pp. 373–393. 

Rossdale, Chris (2015). “Enclosing Critique: The Limits of Ontological Security.” International Political Sociology, 9, no. 4, pp. 369–386. 

Sakwa, Richard (2015). “The Death of Europe? Continental Fates after Ukraine. International Affairs, 91, no. 3, pp. 553–579. 32 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Savitskii, Petr N. (2003). “Evraziistvo.” (Eurasianism) in K. Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will OutlastKorolev, ed., Klassika Geopolitiki. XX vek (Classical Works of Geopolitics. 20th Century). Moscow: AST. Vol. 2, pp. 653–699. 

Sergeevich, Vasilii I. (1909) Drevnosti Russkogo Prava, .(St. Petersburg), 3d ed., 145. 

Steele Brent, J. (2008). Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-Identity and the IR State. Abingdon-New York: Routledge. 

Stent, Angela (2007). “Reluctant Europeans: Three Centuries of Russian Ambivalence Toward the West", in R. Legvold, ed., Russian Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century and the Shadow of the Past. New York: Columbia University Press. 

Subotić, Jelena (October 2016). “Narrative, Ontological Security, and Foreign Policy Change.” Foreign Policy Analysis, 12, no. 4, pp. 610–627. 

Surkov, Vladislav (2006). “Suverenitet—Eto Politicheskii Sinonim Konkurentosp￾osobnosti.” (Sovereignty–Is the Political Synonym for Competitiveness). Moscow: Edinaya Rossiya, p. 22. 

Thorun, Christian (2009). Explaining Change in Russian Foreign Policy: The Role of  Ideas in Post-Soviet Russia’s Conduct Towards the West. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Trenin, Dmitriĭ (2002). The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington: Carnegie Endowment. 

Trenin, Dmitri (2006). “Russia Leaves the West.” Foreign Affairs, 85, no. 4, pp. 87–96. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2012). Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin: Honor in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2014). The Strong State in Russia: Development and Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2016). Russia’s Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Tuminez, Astrid S. (2000). Russian Nationalism since 1856: Ideology and the Making of Foreign Policy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Vernadsky, George (1963). The Mongols and Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 

Vujačić, Veljko (2015). Nationalism, Myth, and the State in Russia and Serbia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Weber, Max, A. M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons (1947). The Theory of Economic and Social Organization. New York: Oxford University Press. 

“Westernizers” (2013). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia®. Retrieved April 18, 2020 from https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Westernizers. 

From The Failed Obama–Medvedev "Reset" To The Ukraine War

 

After the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration changed its language and some of its actions, but bilateral ties with Russia never truly recovered. 

This was partly due to President Bush's commitment to the creation of an anti-ballistic missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic, a program that Moscow fiercely opposed. 

As a result, when Dmitri Medvedev took over as Russian president in March 2008, ties between the US and Russia remained tight. 

In reality, Russia engaged militarily in Georgia shortly after President Medvedev assumed office. 

Medvedev was also the one who publicly said that the post-Soviet zone was a place where "Russia, like other nations in the world, had prioritized interests" (Kramer 2008). 

Furthermore, Russia started pressing for fundamental reforms in the international system, causing the East–West rivalry to spin out of control. 

President Medvedev, for example, suggested a new European Security Treaty shortly after the Russo–Georgian conflict in August 2008, based on assumptions significantly different from those of the current security architecture (Fernandes 2012; Lomagin 2012). 

Because the ideas were presented so soon after the Russo–Georgian conflict, and at a period when Russian foreign policy was becoming more military, the West was unlikely to take them seriously (Kanet 2010a). 

The US, on the other hand, quickly started its own strategy to repair ties with Moscow. 

Barack Obama has emphasized the necessity of repairing ties with Russia throughout his 2008 presidential campaign. 

Vice President Joe Biden advocated for a "reset" in US policy with Russia in a speech in early 2009, urging a change toward "cooperation and consultation" (Cooper and Kulish 2009; Moshes 2012; Biden and Carpenter 2018). 

"The previous several years have witnessed a worrying deterioration in ties between Russia and our [NATO] alliance," Biden said. 

It's time to reset the clock and review the several areas where we can and should collaborate" (Biden, cited in Sherwell 2009). 

The Russians have previously said that they would not deploy missiles near the Polish border. 

Relations between the two nations improved later in the year when President Obama officially indicated that the US will forgo the construction of an anti-ballistic missile system pushed by his predecessor. 

Moscow and Washington made significant headway in addressing numerous important political and security concerns during the following several years. 

The ultimate agreement on and ratification of the New START Treaty of 2010, which lowered both sides' nuclear arsenals by half over the following decade, was by far the most significant. 

The Russians withdrew from the treaty after the US abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, despite the fact that the two countries had agreed to substantial arms limitations in 1992. 

The US Senate refused to ratify the treaty, and the Russians withdrew from it after the US abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002. 

Only after the "reset" did the tone and substance of ties between the two nations improve enough to allow for a New START agreement ("New START" 2010). 

Other benefits of improved bilateral relations for Russia included an agreement with the US on civilian nuclear technology sharing (Rojansky and Torychkanov 2010), a greater US willingness to support Russia's application for membership in the World Trade Organization (Sestanovich 2011), and an implicit understanding that the US would reduce what the Russians saw as "meddling" in its near neighborhood (Sestanovich 2011). 

In exchange, Moscow permitted supplies for the continuing NATO campaign in Afghanistan to travel across Russian territory, despite Russian attempts to decrease the US military presence in Central Asia. 

In reality, the two nations struck a formal agreement on this topic in April 2012. 

Moscow's message seems to be that it must be the ultimate arbitrator of what the US should or should not do in Central Asia. 

For its own interests, it was ready to help NATO fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, but it would do all it could to prevent the creation in the area of quasi-permanent US military outposts over which it had no authority. 

Despite its opposition to the most severe US sanctions on Iran, Russia agreed not to supply the S-300 surface-to-air missiles that Tehran had requested ("Russia May Lose Billions" 2010). 

However, Washington and Moscow are increasingly finding it difficult to achieve a consensus on how to deal with Iran's alleged nuclear weapons development. 

However, under the presidencies of Medvedev and Obama, the United States and Russia clashed the most over support for the "Arab Spring." Although Russia agreed to support the formation of a "no-fly zone" in Libya at the United Nations to spare the people from oncoming calamity at the hands of the Gaddafi dictatorship, it was outspoken in its opposition to the West's use of the authorisation to act directly to depose Gaddafi (Stent 2012). 

This response is at the heart of Moscow's unwillingness to back attempts to push Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. 

Despite persistent tensions and, at times, severe mutual criticism, the three and a half years of overlap between the Obama and Medvedev administrations constituted a period of slightly better relations between the United States and the Russian Federation. 

However, as Michael McFaul (McFaul 2018, 411–412) points out, this collaboration demonstrates that past Western activities were not the fundamental reason of the near-total breakdown of relations after 2012. 

The severe deterioration of ties was sparked by domestic events in Russia. 

Large-scale protests over Putin's declaration that he would seek for a third presidential term in 2012 erupted, and Putin's party's dismal showing in legislative elections in late 2011 resulted in extensive government assaults on civil rights and the expulsion or closure of several NGOs. 

This crackdown was accompanied by an intensified campaign of antagonism against the US, NATO, the European Union, and the West in general. 

This was also the start of a resurgent and successful nationalist movement in Russia, aimed at bolstering popular support for Putin's administration. 

19 As a result, when Putin was re-elected president of Russia in 2012, the rhetorical sparring and direct combat continued, if not increased. 

In other words, while the "reset" had some positive outcomes, they were limited and did not extend to several key areas where the two sides have been at odds for the better part of a decade and a half, such as a US-sponsored missile defense system and US support for democratization in the post-Soviet space and, more recently, in the Arab world.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read and learn more about Global Geo Politics, Conflicts, And Conflict Resolution here.

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References & Further Reading

Abramov, Roman and A. A. Chistiakova (2012). “Nostal'nicheskie Reprezentatsii Pozdnego Sovetskogo Periodav Media Proektakh L.Parfenova: Povolnam KollektivnoIpamiati.” Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal issledovanii kul'tury, 1, pp. 52–58. http://culturalresearch.ru/files/open_issues/01_2012/IJCR_01(6)_2012_abram_chist.pdf. 

Adomeit, Hannes (1995). “Russia as a ‘Great Power’ in World Affairs: Images and Reality.” International Affairs 71, no. 1, pp. 35–68. 

Akchurina, Viktoria, and Vincent Della Sala (2018). “Russia, Europe and the Ontological Security Dilemma: Narrating the Emerging Eurasian Space,” Europe Asia Studies, 70, no. 10, pp. 1638–1655. Published online: December 24, 2018. 

Aksakov, Konstantin (1966). “On the Internal State of Russia,” in M. Raeff, ed., Russian Intellectual History: An Anthology. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, pp. 231–251. 

Billington, James H. (2004). Russia in Search of Itself. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. 

Boym. Svetlana (1995). “From the Russian Soul to Post-Communist Nostalgia.” Representations, 49, pp. 133–166. DOI: 10.2307/2928753. 

Burton, Robert A. (2009). On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. New York: Macmillan. 

Cherniavsky, Michael (1959). “Khan or Basileus: An Aspect of Russian Mediaeval Political Theory.” Journal of the History of Ideas 20, no. 4, pp. 459–476. 

Danilevskii, Nikolai (1869). “ Rossiia i Evropa”, Zaria, pp. 1–10. 

David-Fox, Michael (2015). Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 

Della Sala, Vincent and Viktoria Akchurina (2019). “Love and Fear in the Neighbourhood: Emotions and Ontological Security in Foreign Policy Analysis.” APSA Preprints. Working Paper. doi: 10.33774/apsa-2019-dzv4j. 

Forsberg, Tuomas (2014). “Status Conflicts Between Russia and the West: Perceptions and Emotional Biases.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47, no. 3, pp. 323–331. 

Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 

Gorbachev, Oleg (2015). “The Namedni Project and the Evolution of Nostalgia in post-Soviet Russia.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 57, no. 3-4, pp. 180–194. 30 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Gumilëv, Lev (1990). Nikolaevič. Ėtnogenez i biosfera Zemli. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. 

Grimes, William (2018). “Richard Pipes, Historian of Russia and Reagan Aide, Dies at 94.” The New York Times, May 17, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/obituaries/richard-pipes-historian-of-russia-and-reagan-aide-dies-at-94.html. 

Hankiss, Agnes (1981). “Ontologies of the Self: On the Mythological Rearranging of One’s Life History,” in D. Bertaux, ed., Biography and Society. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 

Hansen, Flemming Splidsboel (2016). “Russia’s Relations with the West: Ontological Security Through Conflict.” Contemporary Politics, 22, no. 3, pp. 359–375. 

Hopf, Ted (2002). Social Construction of International Politics: Identities & Foreign Policies, Moscow, 1955 and 1999. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

Hosking, Geoffrey (1995). “The Freudian Frontier.” Times literary supplement, TLS 4797, p. 27. 

Kanet, Roger E. ed. (2007). Russia: Re-emerging Great Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Kanet, Roger E. (2019). “Russian Strategic Culture, Domestic Politics and Cold War 2.0.” European Politics and Society, 20, no. 2, pp. 190–206. 

Kanet, Roger E. and Susanne M. Birgerson (1997). “The Domestic-Foreign Policy Linkage in Russian Politics: Nationalist Influences on Russian Foreign Policy.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 30, no. 4, pp. 35–44. 

Kliuchevskii, V. O. (1937). Kurs russkoi istorii, 5 vols. Moscow: Gos. Sots. Ekon. Izdatel’stvo. 

Kotkin, Stephen (2016). “Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics: Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern.” Foreign Affairs, 95, p. 2. 

Kononenko, Vadim (2011). “Introduction,” in Vadim Kononenko and Arkady Moshes, eds. Russia as a Network State. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, p. 6. Kozyrev, Andrei (1994). “The Lagging Partnership.” Foreign Affairs, 73, no. 3, pp. 59–71. 

Krashennikova, Veronica (2007). America - Russia: Cold War of Cultures: How American Values Refract Vision of Russia. Moscow: Ltd. Labirintru. 

LeDoux, Joseph E. (2003). Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. London: Penguin. 

Leichtova, Magda (2014). Misunderstanding Russia: Russian Foreign Policy and the West. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 

Levada Center (2015). “Russian Participation in the Syrian Military Conflict,” June 16. http://www.levada.ru/en/2015/11/06/russian-participation-in-the-syrian-military-conflict/print/. 

Levada Center (2014). “68% of Russian Citizens Consider Russia a Superpower. In Levada-Center, December 23. http://www.levada.ru/eng/68-russian-citizens-consider-russia-superpower. 

Levada Center (2020). “Levada Center: 25 Percent of Russians Favor Constitutional Changes; 65 Percent Don’t Understand Them,” Open Media, February 28. https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/02/28/levada-center-25-percent-of-russians-favor-constitutional-changes-65-percent-don-t-understand-them. 

Lipman, Maria (2016). “How Putin Silences Dissent: Inside the Kremlin’s Crackdown.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 38–46. Russia’s self-image 31 

Mankoff, Jeffrey (2009). Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 

Mitzen, Jennifer (2006). “Anchoring Europe’s Civilizing Identity: Habits, Capabilities and Ontological Security 1.” Journal of European Public Policy, 13, no. 2, pp. 270–285. 

Moulioukova, Dina, with Roger E. Kanet (2020). “Assertive Foreign Policy Despite Diminished Capabilities: Russian Involvement in Syria.” Global Affairs, 6, no. 3, pp. 247–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2020.1842787. 

Moulioukova, Dina with Roger E. Kanet (2022). “The Battle of Ontological Narratives: Russia and the Annexation of Crimea,” chapter 5 of this volume. 

Neumann, Iver B. (2008). “Russia as a Great Power, 1815–2007.” Journal of International Relations and Development, 11, no. 2, pp. 128–151. 

The Other Day 1961–2003. “Namedni 1961–2003: Nasha Era” (The other day 1961–2003: our Era). TV Series, 1997–2003. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0764146/. 

Oushakine, Serguei Alex (2007). “We’re Nostalgic but We’re Not Crazy”: Retrofitting the Past in Russia.” The Russian Review, 66, no. 3, pp. 451–482. 

Patterson, Molly and Kristen Renwick Monroe (1998). “Narrative in Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science, 1, pp. 315–331. https://doi.org/10.114 6/annurev.polisci.1.1.315. 

Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will Outlast the Master.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 10–17. 

Pipes, Richard (1996). “Russia’s Past, Russia’s Future.” Commentary, 101, no. 6, pp. 30. 

Pipes, Richard (1974). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

Pipes. Richard (1995). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Penguin Books, 2nd edn. 

Primakov, Andrei (1996). “Primakov Wants ‘Great’ Russia, but Calms West.” Reuters, January 12, 1996. 

Prizel, Ilya (1998). National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Putin, Vladimir (2005). “Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.” April 25. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/22931. 

Putin, Vladimir (2003). “Poslanie federal’nomu sobraniu Rossiiskoi federatsii,” May 16. http://pravdaoputine.ru/official-putin/putin-poslanie-federalnomu-sobraniyu-rossiyskoy-federatsii-2003-text-audio. 

Raeff, Marc (1971). “Patterns of Russian Imperial Policy Toward the Nationalities,” in Edward, Allworth, ed., Soviet Nationality Problems. New York: Columbia Press, pp. 22–42. 

Razyvayev, V. (1992). “Forecast: Sticks and Carrots – Controversial Reflections on Russian Foreign Policy. Nezavisimaya gazeta, in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, March 5, 44, no. 10, pp. 15. 

Roe, Paul (2000). “Former Yugoslavia: The Security Dilemma that Never Was?” European Journal of International Relations, 6, no. 3, pp. 373–393. 

Rossdale, Chris (2015). “Enclosing Critique: The Limits of Ontological Security.” International Political Sociology, 9, no. 4, pp. 369–386. 

Sakwa, Richard (2015). “The Death of Europe? Continental Fates after Ukraine. International Affairs, 91, no. 3, pp. 553–579. 32 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Savitskii, Petr N. (2003). “Evraziistvo.” (Eurasianism) in K. Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will OutlastKorolev, ed., Klassika Geopolitiki. XX vek (Classical Works of Geopolitics. 20th Century). Moscow: AST. Vol. 2, pp. 653–699. 

Sergeevich, Vasilii I. (1909) Drevnosti Russkogo Prava, .(St. Petersburg), 3d ed., 145. 

Steele Brent, J. (2008). Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-Identity and the IR State. Abingdon-New York: Routledge. 

Stent, Angela (2007). “Reluctant Europeans: Three Centuries of Russian Ambivalence Toward the West", in R. Legvold, ed., Russian Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century and the Shadow of the Past. New York: Columbia University Press. 

Subotić, Jelena (October 2016). “Narrative, Ontological Security, and Foreign Policy Change.” Foreign Policy Analysis, 12, no. 4, pp. 610–627. 

Surkov, Vladislav (2006). “Suverenitet—Eto Politicheskii Sinonim Konkurentosp￾osobnosti.” (Sovereignty–Is the Political Synonym for Competitiveness). Moscow: Edinaya Rossiya, p. 22. 

Thorun, Christian (2009). Explaining Change in Russian Foreign Policy: The Role of  Ideas in Post-Soviet Russia’s Conduct Towards the West. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Trenin, Dmitriĭ (2002). The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington: Carnegie Endowment. 

Trenin, Dmitri (2006). “Russia Leaves the West.” Foreign Affairs, 85, no. 4, pp. 87–96. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2012). Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin: Honor in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2014). The Strong State in Russia: Development and Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2016). Russia’s Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Tuminez, Astrid S. (2000). Russian Nationalism since 1856: Ideology and the Making of Foreign Policy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Vernadsky, George (1963). The Mongols and Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 

Vujačić, Veljko (2015). Nationalism, Myth, and the State in Russia and Serbia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Weber, Max, A. M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons (1947). The Theory of Economic and Social Organization. New York: Oxford University Press. 

“Westernizers” (2013). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia®. Retrieved April 18, 2020 from https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Westernizers. 

The Ukraine Conflict And The Eurasian Union

 

Prior to the 2012 Russian presidential election, then-prime minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin laid out his new foreign policy program, which was now focused on "preserving Russia's distinct identity in a highly competitive global environment" in a series of articles published prior to the election (Putin 2011; Putin 2012). 

Putin emphasized the uniqueness and distinctiveness of Russian civilization and how it represents the core of a unique Russian world composed of people (such as the Eastern Slavs of Belarus and Ukraine) who associate themselves with traditional Russian values, abandoning the remnants of earlier efforts to integrate into the West-dominated international system. 

He also said that Europe had veered away from its historical model prior to the 1960s, and now constituted a "post-Christian" identity that valued moral relativism, a hazy sense of self, and excessive political correctness (Gessen 2014). 

According to Putin, European nations have began "renouncing their foundations, including Christian principles, an identity based on moral relativism, a hazy sense of identity, and excessive political correctness" (Gessen 2014). 

Instead, he emphasized ancient European principles while simultaneously emphasizing Russia's distinctive values, which are steeped in the Orthodox Christian past. 

Marriage as a union between a man and a woman, the sanctity of family, religion, the primacy of the state, and patriotism are among these values (Trenin 2014). 

Instead, he emphasized ancient European principles while simultaneously emphasizing Russia's distinctive values, which are steeped in the Orthodox Christian past. 

These values include marriage as a union between a man and a woman, the sanctity of the family, religion, the centrality of the state, and patriotism (Trenin 2014). 

Putin's so-called "civilizational turn" is relevant to Russia's changing security culture and potential merger with post-Soviet states into a Eurasian political and economic union, as it laid the ideological groundwork for Russia's changing security culture and potential merger with post-Soviet states into Putin believed that Russia should be at the heart of a huge geo-economic entity known as the Eurasian Union, which would include governments that had formed from the former Soviet republics and would have political, cultural, economic, and security links. 

In a rapidly globalized world, he stressed the significance of maintaining indigenous values, emphasizing how this union favored that approach. 

This union competes directly with the European Union's European Neighborhood Policy and the integration of Eastern European and Caucasus nations into a broader EU-centered political-economic structure. 

Putin's arguments further support the perception that the West is endangering Russian identity and security at practically every level of contact. 

By the 2012 presidential election campaign, policymakers in Moscow saw the emergence of a special relationship between the European Union and other post-Soviet states – such as Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, and Georgia – as a direct threat to long-term Russian interests in the region, and, by extension, a threat to the goal of re-establishing Russia's role as a major player in international politics. 

Part of the conflict between Moscow and Brussels, as noted by Mikhail Molchanov (2016, 2017), stems from the latter's decision that countries opting for participation in the EU's Neighborhood Policy must forego any special economic ties with other international institutions, such as the proposed Eurasian Union. 

In other words, since the EU required "all or nothing" responses from those who were granted "neighborhood status," they were compelled to choose between a westward or eastward inclination. 

As a result, when Russia started to push for Eurasian integration, the geopolitical conflict with the EU intensified. 

This is crucial for our understanding of Russia's explanation of its strategy in the Ukraine conflict, as well as its implications for general ties with the European Union. 

The EU Eastern Partnership initiative was also aimed to extend the West-controlled geopolitical area to the east, according to Foreign Minister Lavrov (2014).... 

There is a strategy of forcing CIS nations to make a hard, manufactured, and artificial choice: either join the EU or join Russia. 

It was the use of this strategy in Ukraine that plunged the nation into a deep internal political crisis. 

As part of his aim to re-establish Russia's supremacy in Eurasia, Vladimir Putin consolidated the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) after resuming the Russian presidency in 2012. 

This meant that Russia and the European Union were actively wooing six republics in the western part of former Soviet territory: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. 

To "urge" these nations to join the EEU, Russia launched a significant pressure campaign. 

For example, Moscow threatened Armenia with economic and security sanctions, while it offered Ukraine large sums as part of a membership package (Blank 2013). 

By the summer of 2013, it was evident that Georgia and Moldova were willing to defy Moscow's push and enhance their connections with the European Union, that Belarus and Armenia would join Russia's Eurasian Union, and that Azerbaijan would stay outside of both organizations. 

Ukraine's administration, headed by President Yanukovych, tried to deflect attention away from the EU and the EEU for as long as possible, finally agreeing to a signing ceremony with the European Union in the autumn of 2013. 

Massive protests against Yanukovych's administration erupted in Kiev in November 2013 after he declared that Ukraine will instead join the Eurasian Union (Grytsenko 2013). 

As is generally known, Yanukovych was forced to quit the nation as a consequence of these demonstrations. 

In Kiev, a new Western-oriented administration took power, prompting a Russian military involvement in Ukraine. 

This involvement includes the annexation of Crimea and assistance for Russian and Russophone separatist organizations in southern Ukraine (see Götz 2016; Tsygankov 2015; Malayarenko and Wolff 2018 for more on Russia's Ukraine strategy). 

As retaliation for Russia's military participation in Ukraine, the European Union and the United States imposed sanctions. 

Furthermore, the EU no longer considers Russia to be a strategic partner after Russia's annexation of Crimea and assistance for anti-government insurgents in eastern Ukraine. 

The Kremlin, for its part, has been more combative in its rhetoric against the West. 

Russia is now depicted in official Russian security and foreign policy materials as a country under siege by the US and its Western allies. 

The deployment of strategic missiles and the deployment of strategic conventional precision weapons by the West, for example, are both classified as important military threats to Russia in the 2014 Military Doctrine. 

In a time of increased global competition, this doctrine and the 2016 Foreign Policy Concept both identify the United States and NATO as potential adversaries, concluding that Russia must focus on the credibility of its nuclear deterrent as well as conventional and non-conventional warfare elements (The Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation 2015; Russian Foreign Policy Concept 2016).

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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References & Further Reading

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