ABSTRACT
Before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution Russia gave its name to the Imperial Russian Empire and then it was at the heart of the USSR, one of the world’s two superpowers. Russia is no longer a superpower and since 1991 it has had to come to terms with this diminished status and the increasingly unilateral approach to world affairs adopted by the USA, the remaining superpower. Although in the 1990s Russia had extensive nuclear and conventional forces, budget constraints prevented their modernisation (see Chapter 9). Economic problems also meant that Russia could not sustain the external aid programmes through which the USSR had projected its influence around the globe. While dealing with the practicalities of its diminished status and capabilities, Russia also had to rethink and define its national identity (see Chapter 4) and interests. As the world’s largest country, stretching across the Eurasian land mass to the Pacific Ocean and bordering 14 very diverse countries in Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Russia also has had to contend with instability and disputes on and around its borders. Under President Yeltsin institutional rivalries and disagreements about the basic trajectory of Russia’s reforms further complicated foreign policy making. President Putin came to office with a clear agenda of restoring the status and strength that Russia had lost at the time of the USSR’s collapse. Putin was an active and dignified participant in international summits and a forceful champion of Russian interests and great power status; he also stressed the supremacy of the presidency in decision
making and strengthened the state. Russia’s great energy reserves combined with the increase in world energy prices are currently financing an extensive programme of nuclear and conventional forces modernisation; threats to cut energy supplies have also been used as an instrument of Russian foreign policy. Overall, under Putin Russia reasserted its status as a global power in its own right, not as a junior partner to the West.
