Russia has historical tradition of dualism in its foreign policy decision making and beliefs concerning its foreign policy behavior. For quite a long period since Peter the Great reforms Russia was aspiring to become a “normal” European state. However the unique features of Russia in terms of geography, historical path, multinational composition made it different from Europe though receptive to the norms and patterns of European civilization. At the same time Russia has its own tradition of dealing with China and other Asia-Pacific states.
The current reconfiguration of international system adds a new dimension to this dilemma. On the one hand, Russia’s ambitious modernization aims can not be achieved beyond solid technological partnership with the West, first and foremost with Europe. On the other hand the crisis in Europe provokes a drive in the intellectual and political community to overaccentuate such directions of Russia’s foreign policy as relations with rising China, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN member states as well as Asia Pacific multilateral institutions.
The paper dwells upon recent developments in Russian foreign policy decision making towards Asia Pacific bearing in mind the mentioned dilemma. It also analyzes how the situation in the aftermath of the global economic crisis fits into general context of Russian perceptions of the global power shifts and beliefs of policy and business actors at various levels concerning Asia Pacific region’s significance for Russia.
