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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |2 pages
PART I The Russian regional security complex and Russian foreign policy towards the CIS countries
part |2 pages
PART II Russia and the European security sub-complex – relations with Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova
part |4 pages
PART III Russia and the Caucasus security sub-complex – relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and the regional conflicts
part |6 pages
PART IV Russia and the Asian regional sub-complex – relations with Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan 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