ABSTRACT
As the result of victories in a series of wars with the Ottoman Turks during the eighteenth century, Russia became an integral part of Middle Eastern politics. The Russian rulers were, however, unhappy to see the Ottoman empire decline during the first half of the nineteenth century, through a steady loss of territories in the Balkans and an increasing economic dependence on England and Prussia. The reason was spelled out by Karl Nesselrode, the architect of Russian foreign policy, in his memorandum of 1844: the Ottoman empire’s disintegration would bring the powerful west European nations to the southern frontiers of Russia. 1
