Statism In Russia: Implications For US-Russian Relations

Abstract: This work identifies and assesses the general shift in Russian foreign policy thinking during Vladimir Putin’s presidency. The main thesis of this work is that a general shift in Russian foreign policy had occurred during Putin’s presidency owing to the rise in Statist thinking. To substantiate the thesis, the author uses the State of the Nation addresses of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin to make a comparative analysis of the presidents’ foreign policy approaches. As demonstrated, Russian foreign policy experienced a dramatic influx of state power during Putin’s presidency, which resulted in the relative quantitative and qualitative reduction of cooperative initiatives between the US and Russia.

Keywords:Russia, US, Statism, Putin, Yeltsin, Chechnya, foreign policy, nationalism