Russian Foreign Policy in Central Asia and the Chinese New Silk Road

Since the last 10 years we have seen a key actor on the world scenario, Russia, slowly fall out of good relations with its nearest neighbour the European Union and also its distant one the, United States. This has been a mere political erosion of relations, however, following the sanctions imposed by Europe along with the Russian counter-sanctions, there has also been economic erosion. While counter sanctions may have been considered to be a protectionist measure in order to invest in infant Russian agricultural industries others claim that this decision was part of a greater plan to foster the Eurasian integration project. Other claims that the Ukrainian crisis made sure that Russia could not achieve its process of Eurasian integration due to the important market that Ukraine could've been in the Eurasian Economic Union; The Eurasian integration has thus become a key Russian objective. Russian hegemony has always been present in Central Asia and Eurasia since the fall of the USSR, but it has never managed to develop the region as a possible economic partner. Central Asia has always been for Russia a huge source of cheap labour to draw from but now the Central Asian scenario for Russia is changing. Following the sanctions and the Russian shift to the East, Russian interest in the area has become ever stronger, especially now that also China has demonstrated its own interest in the region. The most impelling threat to Russian hegemony in the region is the Chinese interest manifested by Xi Jinping through the launch of the New Silk Road initiative and more in particular through the One Belt One Road component (OBOR) of the initiative. Central Asia is Russia's backyard as it is also China's closest Westwards neighbour. The stakes for Russia to lose in the region are very high, as such; Russia will have to act in a repelling or containing matter towards the Chinese initiative. How Russia will act is the question we will pose ourselves and why it decides to act in this way is the issue that we will analyse throughout this thesis.