Russia's Turn to the East: Domestic Policymaking and Regional Cooperation [Hardcover]

This book is open access under a CC BY license.

This book explores if and how Russian policies towards the Far East region of the country  and East Asia more broadly  have changed since the onset of the Ukraine crisis and Russias annexation of Crimea. Following the 2014 annexation and the subsequent enactment of a sanctions regime against the country, the Kremlin has emphasized the eastern vector in its external relations. But to what extent has Russias 'pivot to the East' intensified or changed in nature  domestically and internationally  since the onset of the current crisis in relations with the West? Rather than taking the declared 'pivot' as a fact and exploring the consequences of it, the contributors to this volume explore whether a pivot has indeed happened or if what we see today is the continuation of longer-duration trends, concerns and ambitions.

Chapter 1. Gateway or garrison? Border regions in times of geopolitical crisis.- Chapter 2. An Asian pivot starts at home: The Russian Far East in Russian regional policy.- Chapter 3. Primorskii Krai and Russias turn to the East: A regional view.- Chapter 4. Promoting new growth: Advanced special economic zones in the Russian Far East.- Chapter 5.The Russian Far East and Russian security policy in the AsiaPacific region.- Chapter 6. Energy Relations between China and Russia after Crimea.- Chapter 7. Russia, China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Diverging security interests and the Crimea effect.- Chapter 8. Russias new Asian tilt: How much does economy matter?.-? Chapter 9. Afterword: 6,400 kilometres away  but not a policy world apart.

Helge Blakkisrud?is Head of the Research Group on