Soltanov, E: a Political Economy Of Russian Foreign Policy

This research aims to analyze Russian natural resource-finance sector s effect on the formation of Russian foreign policy since the collapse of the Soviet Union and until early 2000s. The main question it tries to answer is why it has been successful in determining the main contours of a relatively peaceful foreign policy in a crises-laden Russia which have had so many reasons to switch to an aggressive behavior. In this regard, the military- industrial complex is the other crucial economic sector to be referred to frequently. Given the overwhelming nature of the international structure that Russia finds itself in, and given the general change in the worldview of the Russians, it becomes clear that the resource-finance sector on the one hand and the military-industrial complex on the other are much more than mere economic sectors, being organic material cores of alternative national and international identities. Such a holistic approach helps to rely on the explanatory power of the legitimacy factor and go beyond different group preferences in accounting for Russian foreign policy.