Russia in Global Affairs

Russia cannot afford to treat Asia as a secondary priority, although it often still does. If Moscow continues in this way, Russia could find itself facing a creeping expansionism from the east. In any case, Russia’s former model of relations with the European Union has clearly ceased to function.

What is in store for Russia-EU relations in a world increasingly dominated by Sino-American confrontation? What remains of the expectations of 1989? Here’s Timofei Bordachev, academic supervisor for the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics, with his analysis.

What does the U.S.-China confrontation mean for Russia? Will Moscow take sides? Or will it be able to skillfully maneuver between the two powers? We discuss these issues with Ivan Safranchuk, Associate Professor of MGIMO University, and Vassily Kashin, a leading researcher at the Higher School of Economics.

Russia will need cheap labor while North Korea will need hard currency and will produce only a small number of sellable items. So, even if all workers left Russia now (a big if), they would in all probability return, sooner or later.

To describe the transformation of the world order most accurately it would be appropriate to use the formula “bipolarity overburdened by multipolarity.”

It is nakedly clear that China finds it far easier to refuse to hold nuclear arms control talks than address the adverse military and strategic effects its participation in such an international agreement is bound to entail.

An analysis of the causes and mechanisms of anti-Chinese protests in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Baikal region of Russia shows that Sinophobic sentiments may also manifest themselves in other parts of the post-Soviet space as well.

For Russia, the question now is not how it will deal with China in the future, but how threatening Beijing’s confrontation with the United States is for its survival right now. If Russia assesses its neighbour’s confrontation with the United States as a systemic one, the task of breaking this Western adversary looks paramount for the survival of the country and its political system. So paramount, that it will be necessary to think about how to arrange relations with China, should it theoretically win a new Cold War.

In the current situation, a multi-vector policy—smart balancing between three centers (EU-NATO, Russia, and China)—may open up opportunities for Serbia to exert political agency on the international stage in the near term.