Russia's turn to the East () is a change of foreign policy strategy of the Russian Federation at the beginning of the 21st century, associated with a partial foreign economic reorientation towards the

countries of Asia This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Asia. It includes sovereign state, fully recognized states, states with limited but substantial international recognition, ''de facto'' states with little or no international recogn ...

. The goals of the turn were: to occupy a proper economic and political place in the Asia-Pacific region, to improve the balance of foreign trade, which is overly oriented towards Europe, and, from 2014, to weaken the effect of

economic sanctions Economic sanctions or embargoes are Commerce, commercial and Finance, financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of Coercion (international relations), coercion tha ...

.Дёмина Ольга Валерьевна
Поворот на Восток: риски и возможности увеличения экспорта российских энергоресурсов в Китай
// Регионалистика. 2016. № 6. The turn implies Russia's abandonment of unsuccessful attempts to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic system (which began after the end of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

), the preference for ties with the " non-West" and includes both the development of the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

and cooperation with Asian countries. Worsening in the 2010s relations with the West have accelerated these processes, and sanctions are often seen as a necessary boost to Russia's long-overdue transformation into a Eurasian power. Debate—and criticism of the government—in the political and expert communities centers on the ways and means of the turnaround; there is no debate about its necessity; many believe that Russian problems cannot be solved in the West. Sanctions have also made it easier for the government to work with the public: turn to the East is perceived as natural, and attempts to cooperate with the West are perceived as a sign of weakness. At the same time, the perception of China as a friendly country has sharply increased. All major political parties (with the exception of the ruling

United Russia The All-Russian Political Party United Russia (, ) is the Ruling party, ruling List of political parties in Russia, political party of Russia. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the St ...

in the 2010s) take anti-American positions; this absence of a pro-Western opposition also simplifies the change. The leading partner in the turn is China, with which cooperation takes place in many areas: energy, industrial, financial, and military. At the same time, Russia is trying to balance relations with China by strengthening cooperation with South Korea, North Korea and, if possible, with Japan (whose rapprochement with Russia is hindered by a close alliance with the United States).

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* Foreign relations of Russia {{Foreignrelations-stub

See also

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