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Author : S. Karaganov
Dean of the School of World Economics and International Affairs, National Research University-Higher
School of Economics, Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy
THE CURRENT STAGE of Russia's pivot to the East
is the product of the second half of the 2000s largely as
a belated economic response to the rise of Asia, which
opened new opportunities for the country's develop-
ment, especially for it eastern part. That rise made it pos-
sible to turn the Ural region and the Russian Far East
from a mainly imperial burden - or a logistics base in con-
frontation with the West, sometimes a front line in rivalry
with Japan or China - into a potential territory of devel-
opment for the entire country.
The expediency of making the pivot was substantiated by the forecasted imminent economic
slowdown of its main traditional partner, Europe, and the deterioration of relations with Europe
and the West as a whole.
The need for the diversification of economic ties and outside sources of development was be-
coming increasingly obvious.
RUSSIA'S PIVOT to the East, which was repeatedly proclaimed, in fact began politically and
economically in 2011-2012.
The unprofitable and unhealthy foreign trade structure that developed during the disintegration
of the Soviet economic complex and chaotic reconstruction - when, in exchange for energy, the
country received relatively costly and economically less efficient goods from the West, primarily
from Europe, - is becoming history. The diversification of foreign trade flows creates more ben-
eficial positions for Russia and is shifting the balance in economic and political bargaining in its
favor.
Of course, the economic turn is proceeding very slowly because of the accumulated inertia, in-
cluding the inertia of economic thinking, and the sluggishness of the Russian government ap-
paratus, corrupt elites and, most important, economic stagnation and the weakness of the
investment climate, primarily for Russian small and medium-sized businesses.
THE GREATER EURASIA PARTNERSHIP or Community is, first, a conceptual framework
that sets the course for engagement between states on the continent. It should be aimed at the
joint economic, political and cultural revival and development of dozens of Eurasian countries,
which used to be partially backward or were under oppression, and Eurasia's transformation
into a global economic and political center.
Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
International Affairs: Summary№4, 2017
From Eastward Pivot to Greater Eurasia