Is Eurasianism the Ideological Engine of Russian Foreign Policy? The Case of Central Asia

Abstract

Russia?s post-9/11 rapprochement with the US has often been misinterpreted as a call for strategic cooperation with the West. In fact Putin?s belligerent disregard of Western economic and political standards and hard-line expansionist policies on the territory of the former Soviet Union and specifically in Central Asia reveal that his amicable gestures were a short-term tactic to stifle criticism regarding some of his controversial politics. Instead of embracing Euro-Atlantic values, Putin?s Russia may be actually heading in a diametrically opposite direction? towards constructing an alternative to the Western-manufactured blueprint for state development promoted in the globalizing world. A lofty goal, indeed, but also one that is enjoying unprecedented popularity in Russia under the ideological directorship of the so-called Eurasianists.