Russia’s competing nationalisms and foreign relations with Asia

Is growing domestic nationalism influencing Russia’s foreign relations with its Asian neighbours? Many commentators identify an increasingly aggressive and expansionist Russian nationalism as a key influence on Russia’s foreign relations with the West (Clover, 2008; Cohen and Dale, 2010; Kramer, 2010). Even prior to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, Moscow’s foreign policy was certainly becoming more assertive and diverging from the preferences of the United States and its European allies (Breslauer, 2009; Tsygankov, 2009a). But while Russia’s relations with the West have declined in recent years-primarily over Russia’s annexation of Crimea, meddling in the Ukraine, the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, and the eastward expansion of NATO-Russia’s relations with its Asian neighbours have generally improved (Laruelle, 2014; Tsygankov, 2014).1