the foreign policy of russia toward caucasus 2000-2008

after the soviet union dissolution, a chaotic period was begun in the russia. russia lost its glory and felt disgrace. the first group of elites came to power under yeltsin; they tried to re-define russia’s identity as a european country and build a foreign policy on this baseline. therefore russia tried to become closer with the west especially with the u.s. according to their view the soviet and cold war and being a super power period was come to end and russia has to deal with this sorrowful truth and just try to become a normal country like others with comparative power. neglecting the russia’s historical legacy, feeling humiliation of the kosovo war and nato expansion, broken economy and domestic chaos resulted to shifting ruler elites at the end of 1990s. new president, vladimir putin, tried to change russia’s view on itself and the “others”. putin wanted to restore russia’s “national identity” as a great power and return russia’s historical sphere of influence in the near abroad. to doing so, russia should recover its economy by modernizing it, increasing oil and gas prices and russia’s vast natural resources paved putin’s way to achieve such goals. then to recover russia’s position in the international arena and for being more assertive, putin tried to restore russia’s sphere of influence in the near abroad. therefore near abroad (especially caucasus) was tighten with russia’s national identity to define itself as a great power. it seems that russia under putin was successful to convince the rest of the world that central asia and caucasus are still russia’s sphere of influence and russia does not bear any interference in these area; and countries that try to be more independence from russia (like georgia) would be punished.