Russia’s foreign policy: key regions and issues

Russian foreign policy appears to be going in circles.Each new president begins by emphasizing -or repairing -the relationship with the West, only to end his time in offi ce by questioning and jeopardizing it.It remains an open question if Putin's successor will seek a new accommodation with the West. Under Yeltsin and Putin: Warm Beginnings, Diffi cult EndingsBoris Yeltsin declared in December 1991 that the new democratic Russia might consider joining NATO.Although the text of his address to the North Atlantic Cooperation Council was retroactively revised because the request met with a lack of understanding, Yeltsin's fi rst term in offi ce was characterized by his determination to see Russia accepted as a full-fl edged member of the community of democratic industrialized nations; not least because the West largely had to underwrite his policies, as well as his re-election in 1996 in both political and fi nancial terms.Yeltsin's second term in offi ce was, however, overshadowed by a number of controversies, including the two Chechen campaigns, the eastward expansion of NATO, the dispute over the status of Kosovo and the war in former Yugoslavia, the future nuclear balance between Russia and the US, and, particularly, US plans to build a missile defense system.Th e legacy of Yeltsin's policy towards the West just before his resignation at the end of 1999 was a grim one."Russia fatigue" was spreading in the West, and the US opposition complained that Russia had been "lost," while even Yeltsin himself talked about the advent of a "cold peace" at his last appearance before a Western audience at the OSCE summit in Istanbul in November 1999.Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin, began his tenure in 2000 by repairing the heavily-damaged relationship.Russia's economic stabilization, energetic communication with Europe, and especially the immediate announcement of almost unlimited support for the US in fi ghting terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attacks marked the beginning of a new course.For a while, former disagreements seemed to have moved far into the distance.But this was only a brief interlude before the disputes returned to center stage at the Munich Security Conference in February 2007.