ABSTRACT

This book describes the strategies used by President Putin from 2000 onwards to recreate 'Greater Russia', that is a Russia that controls most of the territory of the former Soviet Union.

It shows the subtlety of the means of control, often through creating economic dependencies in the 'near abroad', including exploiting energy dependency, through prolonging other political and military dependencies, and sometimes through traditional 'power politics'. Bertil Nygren argues that after seven years in power the results of this strategy are beginning to show, providing comprehensive coverage of Russia’s relations to the former Soviet territories of the CIS countries, including Ukraine and Putin's role in the events surrounding the 'Orange Revolution', Belarus and the attempts to form a union, the Caucasus and Russia's role in the various conflicts, Moldova, including the Transdniester conflict, and Central Asia. This is an important subject for Russian studies experts and international relations scholars in general.

part |2 pages

PART I The Russian regional security complex and Russian foreign policy towards the CIS countries

chapter 1|21 pages

Introduction

part |2 pages

PART II Russia and the European security sub-complex – relations with Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova

chapter 3|17 pages

Russia and Ukraine

chapter 4|16 pages

Russia and Belarus

chapter 5|19 pages

Russia and Moldova

part |4 pages

PART III Russia and the Caucasus security sub-complex – relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and the regional conflicts

chapter 6|5 pages

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

chapter 7|4 pages

Russia and Azerbaijan

chapter 8|5 pages

Russia and Armenia

chapter 9|35 pages

Russia and Georgia

part |6 pages

PART IV Russia and the Asian regional sub-complex – relations with Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan

chapter 12|7 pages

Russia and Kazakhstan

chapter 13|6 pages

Russia and Kyrgyztan

chapter 14|8 pages

Russia and Tajikistan

chapter 15|6 pages

Russia and Uzbekistan

chapter 16|5 pages

Russia and Turkmenistan

part |2 pages

PART V Russia as a regional great power – analysis of the past and future of Putin’s attempt to rebuild Greater Russia – objectives, strategies, policies, instruments and prospects for success

chapter 18|32 pages

Conclusions