ABSTRACT
The chapter provides an overview of Russia's policies toward Asia-Pacific interstate institutions since the late 1980s up to the present. In the 1990s, the post-Soviet Russia was admitted into the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), even though Moscow, distracted and weakened by the domestic mayhem, was not able to make full use of the membership. From hindsight, 2012 was the high point of Russia's involvement in the Asia-Pacific/East Asian political and economic regionalism. Subsequent deterioration of Russia's relations with the West, particularly in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, led Moscow to prioritize Eurasian continentalism, in which the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is expected to somehow align with Sino-centric geo-economic initiatives such as the Silk Road Economic Belt, with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization assuming the role of a collective security agent in Eurasia's heartland. The rise of Eurasianism has relegated the Asia-Pacific/East Asian institutions to the back burner in Moscow's list of priorities.
