Russia’s Strategic Thought toward Asia: The Early Yeltsin Years (1991–95)

Abstract

Russian strategic thinking toward Asia under Yeltsin in the early years of his presidency was inconsistent, and tended to take a back seat to Moscow’s preoccupation with the West. In the preceding years Asia had clearly been given a higher priority under Mikhail Gorbachev and the Soviet leadership. As indicated in the preceding chapter, the Sino-Soviet relationship, the Soviet role in the Cambodian conflict, the status of Soviet troops in Mongolia, and the war in Afghanistan were all major preoccupations of the Soviet leadership throughout the 1980s. Additionally, Gorbachev attempted to reawaken the dormant Soviet-Japanese relationship, and Tokyo was in fact the destination for his last official state visit as president of the USSR. Although relations with the United States and NATO were also of tremendous importance to the Soviet Union, it was recognized that many of the more pressing issues regarding Russia’s foreign policy and Russian strategic thinking had to do with Asia.KeywordsForeign PolicyKurile IslandLiberal Democratic PartyStrategic ThinkingSoviet RepublicThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.