THE DRIVING FORCES OF RUSSIA’S PIVOT TO EAST

There is no conceptual analysis of the Russia’s pivot to East while a lot of discussion about nature and consequences of this geopolitical maneuver among both Russian and foreign analysts. The article based on the analysis of Russian official program documents explores the key aspects of the Russia`s reorientation to Asia policy. Authors view the policy in the context of three global processes: 1) participation of Russia in global competition towards reconfiguration of global order; 2) Russian strategy for reintegration of post-Soviet space and its interaction with alternatives projects for post-Soviet integration; 3) diversification of political and economic ties of Russia with its West/East partners. According to the authors’ conclusions, the ‘pivot to East’ process is unfolding in several dimensions simultaneously. Current geopolitical reconfiguration is the result of long-term processes which closely related with main geopolitical and internal priorities of Moscow, and this gives the reasons for vision of the pivot to East as sustainable rising tendency, which will independent from current and short-run processes in the international affairs. The factors, which directly led Russia to this policy, were rapprochement with China, building of cooperation and integration infrastructure with Asia-Pacific and post-Soviet Central Asia countries, diversification of energy resources trade with the purposes of avoid dependency from monopsonic European market.

pivot to East, Russia, geopolitics, Eurasian integration, strategy of development, Pacific region, Far East

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