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Government, Foreign Policy

After World War II (1939-1945) the Cold War dominated Soviet foreign policy. All issues were seen from theperspective of a global ideological and political struggle with the United States and its allies. Under Mikhail

Gorbachev, who led the country from 1985 to 1991, the USSR sought to end the Cold War. Relations with theWest improved dramatically.

After independence in 1991 Foreign Minister Andrey Kozyrev and President Yeltsin at first maintained a stronglypro-American foreign policy. Yeltsin and Kozyrev initially had a relaxed attitude toward the eastward expansionof NATO, which had been the main military alliance of Western nations during the Cold War.

Domestic pressure prompted a foreign policy shift. In particular, strong support for the ultranationalist candidateVladimir Zhirinovsky in the December 1993 parliamentary elections convinced the government that the publicdemanded a more nationalistic, less pro-Western approach to foreign policy. As a result, Russia resumed salesof arms and civil nuclear technology to developing countries, including Iran, which elicited disapproval from theUnited States. More importantly, Russia began expressing loud support for Russians in the "near abroad" (as

Russians call the outlying areas of the former USSR) and strong opposition to NATO expansion, and was atodds with NATO countries over how to resolve the ethnic turmoil in the former Yugoslavia. NATOs support forMuslims and Croats drew disapproval from Russia, which had historical ties to the competing ethnic Serbs.

Much of this shift in policy was more a question of rhetoric than one of practice, however. By 1997 Russiassupport for Russian-speaking secessionists in the Trans-Dniester region of Moldova had become moremoderate. The Russian government never encouraged Russian secessionists in Crimea; their strength in 1993and 1994 threatened both political stability in Ukraine and Ukraines territorial integrity. In 1997 Russia signed afriendship treaty with Ukraine, settling the long-standing dispute over the Soviet Black Sea Fleet and confirmingits recognition of Ukraines postindependence borders.

There were multiple reasons for Russias restraint. The country was conscious of its economic and military

weakness, and it was also aware of the potential for conflict within the former USSR if national borders werechallenged or ethnic conflicts encouraged. Furthermore, Yeltsin recognized that Russia needed to integrate itselfinto the world economy and Western-dominated institutions, such as the World Trade Organization, if it was toregain economic prosperity and effective global influence. Russias long-running dispute with Japan over theKuril Islands also reduced the countrys room to maneuver in international affairs.

In 1999 Russias relations with Western nations suddenly worsened as NATO admitted the Czech Republic,Hungary, and Poland, thus expanding into central and eastern Europe, and also attacked Yugoslavia to compelthe Yugoslav government to halt military operations against Albanian separatists in that countrys Kosovoprovince. Russia denounced NATO as aggressive and expansionist and drew closer to China. However,Russian policymakers understood their own countrys weakness and its need to attract Western investment. Thegovernments rhetoric at times reflected the increasingly nationalist mood in Russian society, but its foreign

policy remained cautious. Russias leaders were, in fact, anxious to maintain good relations with the Westernpowers. President Vladimir Putin pursued a foreign policy of closer cooperation with the West. Following theterrorist attacks in the United States in September 2001, Russia became a key ally in the U.S.-led war onterrorism. In May 2002 Russia and the United States reached their first arms-reduction treaty in more than adecade. Also that month, Russia became a limited partner in NATO.

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