Russia and Latin America in the 21st Century: A Difficult Rapprochement Russie.Nei.Visions, No. 119, Ifri, July 2020
This article analyses Russia’s relations with Latin America in the first two decades of the 21st century in the light of global political and economic processes.
Many different types of cooperation and interaction between Russia and the region are examined. The article places particular emphasis on military-technical cooperation as the “axis” of Russia’s bilateral relations with many countries, but other sectors, such as energy, infrastructure and transport, are also explored in detail. It finishes with a case study of Venezuela, which occupies a unique place in Russia’s relations with the region.
Relations between Russia and Latin America are developing against this backdrop of growing confrontation between the USA and China. Moscow’s policy is designed to infringe on both parties’ interests as little as possible. Russia is forced to be extremely careful in this regard. Such caution cannot but leave its mark on Russian policy in the region, which is very limited.
Andrey Pyatakov is the lead researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow (ILA RAN).