Russia as a U.S.-China Battleground State
The strategic triangle from the Cold War is returning. Only this time, Russia is the prize.
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The Russian Far East and China: Thoughts on Cross-Border Integration
Introduction “The Far East and Baikal are a strategic bridgehead of Russia, ensuring her military-political and economic influence in the Asia-Pacific region. The federal government and regions of the Russian Federation should jointly make huge efforts to give this region the dynamism that will permit it to be an effective and worthy region of Russia….” Viktor Ishayev, then-governor of Khabarovsk Krai, May 2003 [1] Developing Russia’s economically- and demographically-challenged Far East (RFE) has been a top priority for Moscow in recent years, consuming a significant and increasing share of state resources. Yet Moscow expects that much of the impetus for growth of this depressed region to come, not from within, but from closer integration with the relatively fast-paced economies of the Asia-Pacific region. For a variety of reasons – geographical proximity, economic imperatives, and close-fitting strategic ties – Moscow has assigned China a central role in its modernizing strategy...