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VLADIMIR PUTIN ON RUSSIA’S FOREIGN POLICY
ALEXEY ARBATOV,
Head of International Security Center of Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Moscow
Concerning foreign policy Russia’s relations with the other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have been emphasized by Russian President Vladimir Putin at his recent press conference in Moscow (February 1st).
Evidently, the relations between Russia and its neighboring countries have recently undergone a very thorough change. Before it was the issues of security, frontiers, military bases, migration that were in focus of Russia’s interests, but now it is the energy transit only, which has become the most important issue of Russia’s relations with the former Soviet republics. President Putin’s answers have proven that.
Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on exporting raw materials, that’s why the Russian foreign policy has become deformed very much. Now the Russian government is more concerned about prices at which the CIS countries will buy the Russian energy resources. As a result, the price of oil and gas transit through Ukraine is a more important question than Ukraine’s plans to join NATO.
President Putin’s assessment of the current relations between Russia and the West is worthy of special attention. Last year analysts predicted that Russia would face a crisis in its relations with the Western countries, which had not occurred since the Cold War era, but Vladimir Putin has described those relations in a different way. He has emphasized that it is easy to obtain the respect of the Western partners if to make great concessions to them.
The President has also pointed to the most difficult problem in the relations with China. It is the intense export of natural resources from Russia’s Far East to China. He suggests that Russia should export the finished articles instead of raw materials.
As regards Iran’s nuclear program and Russia’s relations with this country, Russia is carrying on the dialogue with both the Western partners and Teheran. Moscow tries to avoid the military solution of the problem.
President Putin has also stressed that Iran should remove all the suspects that its nuclear program covers an attempt to acquire nuclear weapons.
The text is based on Alexey Arbatov’s address to the press conference “Russian President about the foreign policy of the country” that was organized by the Russian News and Information Agency RIA Novosti on February 6, 2007.
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