Interpreting Russian aims to control the Black Sea region through naval geostrategy (Part One): ‘The Azov-Black Sea basin as a whole […] This is, in fact, a zone of our strategic interests’

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is the first of two that examine the influence of naval geostrategy in Russian policy and military action in the Black Sea region. Following the dissolution of the USSR, the Russian Federation inherited an unfavorable geostrategic position in the Black Sea theater. Applying models used in naval geostrategy, this article interprets Russian efforts during the twenty-first century’s first decade and a half that aimed at improving the country’s geostrategic position in this region. In a series of consecutive steps, the Kremlin secured and expanded Russian access to sea zones and naval bases at the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea and, simultaneously, minimized Georgia’s and Ukraine’s conditions to develop sea power.