This branch of research analyses the relations of Russia and the New Independent States with the rest of the world, with a special focus on security issues.
The Russian Federation is shaping its religious diplomacy (i.e., in brief, the use of the religious factor in foreign policy) and exercises it with a growing efficiency. This is, to a certain degree, a consequence of processes taking place in Russia, namely, first and foremost, the solving of...
After serious decline in the 1990s, Ukraine's economy finally started its recovery and systemic reform in early 2000. While the economy rapidly grew by 2008, its transformation remained unfinished. Ukraine has three possible roads to development.
As Moscow and the WTO Member States have finally established terms on which Russia will accede to the organization, thoughts turn to the impact of this historic event and the potential for it to play a role in the modernization of the country’s economy. The process has been long, with Russia...
Italy is one of Russia's most important partners in Europe. They have established extensive cooperation in practically all areas: economic cooperation is at a very high level, and on most issues of world politics Russia and Italy's positions are close or coincide.
Chapter also available in French as “Les relations avec la Russie” in L-M Clouet and A Marchetti (eds.), L'Union Européenne et le Monde en 2020 : visions prospectives franco-allemandes, Ifri/ZEI, 2011.
Since summer 2009, instability in the eastern part of the North Caucasus has escalated, a security threat against which the Russian leadership cannot find a strategy. Despite a maximum-intensity counterinsurgency campaign, the rebels have been able to expand their support base, staging...
Nuclear weapons have traditionally occupied an important place in Russia’s national security strategy. As Russia and the United States have been reducing their nuclear arsenals since the end of the Cold War, their relationship has undergone a complex transformation. Russia, however, still...
Russian writers like Dmitri Trenin have called developing the Russian Far East (RFE) a civilizational task. At the same time Moscow has acknowledged that developing the RFE is the foundation for any successful Russian claim to an independent great power status in Asia.
The administrations of Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev have committed to a process of "resetting" US-Russian relations on a foundation of mutual interests and pragmatic collaboration.
Relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia have never been as friendly as they were in 2009. After years of tension over Saudi support for Islamist fundamentalism in the post-Soviet space and Russia's proximity to Iran and Iraq, Moscow and Riyadh have progressively moved closer to each other....
