RUSSIAN FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICIES TOWARDS THE NEAR ABROAD
RUSSIAN FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICIES TOWARDS THE NEAR ABROAD

Summary/Abstract: Since the Soviet Union’s (USSR) collapse, Russia’s domestic and foreign policies have changed. With the loss of “superpower” status, Russians struggled to define their “national identity,” which influenced the country’s new foreign policy. This struggle affected Russia’s ties with its sovereign neighbours, the former Soviet states termed the “Near Abroad” (blizhnee zarubezhe). The struggle specifically led to a series of territorial, leadership, economic, diaspora, and military conflicts with some countries in the Near-Abroad. The question of the legitimacy of territories and borders in Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan), Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Georgia), the Trans-Dniester area (Moldova), and Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk areas of Ukraine is largely a result of the struggle. This paper discusses the factors affecting Russian domestic and foreign policy towards the Near-Abroad nations, which have influenced Russia’s behaviour in contemporary international politics. Firstly, this essay analysed Russia’s identity crisis and foreign strategy. The effect of Marxism-Leninism on Soviet foreign policy and the new Russian State was also discussed. This paper also analysed Vladimir Putin’s pragmatic strategy in the Near-Abroad, focusing on Ukraine. This paper submits that Russia’s determination to see the NearAbroad states as largely within its sphere of influence and geopolitical interests hinders the establishment of equal ties with these countries.

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