Title: Primakov Redux? Putin's Pursuit of "Multipolarism" in Asia
Abstract: When he was Russia's foreign minister and then prime minister under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, Yevgeny Primakov attempted to build a international order in response to what he (and many others) perceived as the unipolar world order being built by the United States. Vladimir Putin, who became Russia's president at the end of 1999, initially continued this foreign policy course. In the wake of September 11, 2001, however, he appeared to abandon it in favor of close cooperation with the United States. With the emergence of differences between Washington and Moscow over a number of issues, Putin has reverted to building a multipolar international order. Putin has been making this effort primarily in Asia and only secondarily (at best) elsewhere.This article explores why Putin has revived Primakov's multipolar policy, examines why he is pursuing it primarily in Asia, and assesses how effective this policy has been and can be. First, something needs to be said about what Primakov's multipolar policy consisted of and why Putin seemed to abandon it in the wake of September 11.Primakov's Multipolar PolicyIn the latter part of the Gorbachev era and the first two years of the Yeltsin era, Moscow and Washington enjoyed unprecedented close relations. The conviction that America was not a threat helped induce Gorbachev to peacefully retreat from the Marxist empire that had been built up in Eastern Europe and the third world. Yeltsin strongly sought American and other Western advice and support for the ambitious marketization project he set in motion in Russia right after the breakup of the Soviet Union. There was a general expectation in Russia that after being adversaries in a predominantly bipolar world for so long, Washington and Moscow would now work together to manage the world.1This general Russian expectation was not met, however. Nor were a number of specific Russian expectations regarding the United States. The Russians expected massive American economic assistance and were disappointed at the amount Washington actually gave. The Russians expected that in response to Moscow voluntarily disbanding the Warsaw Pact, Washington would disband NATO. When this did not happen, Moscow expected that NATO would not expand into the countries of the former Warsaw Pact. This expectation also was dashed. Russians were disappointed in Washington's criticism of and lack of support for Moscow's efforts to suppress the Chechen rebels. In addition, after Moscow expressed strong objection to any American intervention in the former Yugoslavia against Serbia, the Russian public as well as the Russian elites were enraged that the United States intervened in Bosnia and Kosovo, and even bombed Serbia.2These and other Russian disappointments with the United States did not occur all at once, but over a period of several years. Early on in the post-Soviet era, these disappointments resulted in many Russians, including both Primakov and the Eurasianists, concluding that instead of rewarding Moscow for the many concessions that it had made (for example, peacefully withdrawing from Eastern Europe and the third world), Washington was taking advantage of them to expand its own power. To stop this, Moscow must stand up to Washington instead of continuing to make concessions to it, as Gorbachev-era Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and the Yeltsin era's first Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev were said to have done.3Post-Soviet Russia was not strong enough to do this by itself. However, many other countries also opposed American hegemony. Primakov hoped that Russia could emerge as the leader of an alliance of such countries. The list of countries that the Russian press regarded as actual or potential members of this alliance varied, but usually included China, India, Iran, Iraq (under Saddam), Syria, Serbia (under Milosevic), most of the CIS countries, and even France and Germany. Primakov seemed willing to build as broad and inclusive alliance of countries as possible. …
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 15
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