ABSTRACT
This chapter will provide a comprehensive study of Russia’s economic cooperation with Uzbekistan. It will not only analyse Russia’s pre- and post-Soviet trajectories of cooperation, which the chapter will argue is linked with multi-dimensional complexities of its historical legacy, but it will also look into the nature of Russia’s foreign economic policy decision making. The chapter will highlight that during Yeltsin’s presidency, the implementation of his policies was difficult to achieve due to the fragmented structure of Russia’s foreign policy decision making. Since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the Russian government has reasserted its economic interest in Uzbekistan as well as Central Asia as a whole. To further understand Russia’s growing role in the region, the chapter will look into the specific characteristics of Russia’s own domestic economic interests, President Putin’s ‘power vertical’ and transformation of foreign policy decision making, ‘economisation’ and making energy politics as Russia’s core foreign policy strategy, linked with Russia’s attempt to reclaim its ‘Great Power’ status – in other words, analysing the interlink of domestic/international and geopolitical/geo-economic factors. Moreover, the chapter will analyse this in relation to Uzbekistan’s own foreign policy position and the available choices by looking into both internal and external conditions shaped during and after Karimov’s rule in this county.
