Russia and the CIS in 2013: Russia's Pivot to Asia

May 1, 2014

As global demand for energy supplies grew, Russia’s Far East and Eastern Siberia in 2013 acquired ever more importance in the region’s geopolitics. Moscow and Beijing reached accord on joint development of key oil fields in Eastern Siberia. But Moscow used arms sales to Vietnam as part of an apparent effort to thwart Chinese hegemony in the South China Sea. Still, just as Russian comparative economic advantage with Europe and the West has derived primarily from oil and gas, so has integration with Asia hinged on energy.

This article first appeared in Asian Survey, Volume 54, Number 1, January/February 2014, available online at http://ucpressjournals.com/journal.php?j=as.