De Facto States and Russian Power Projection in the South Caucasus

Abstract

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia’s foreign policy stressed heavily on the significance of the South Caucasus region. Despite the fact that the Russian Federation’s foreign policy towards Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan has not been consistent and uniform throughout the independence period, it is without a question that Russia’s neo-imperial view demands these countries to be under its political and economic orbit. There are many leverages held by Russia to project its power in the South Caucasian countries, but the approaches and methods vary with each state individually. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to assess the following questions: how does Russia project its power in the strategically important region of the South Caucasus? how does Russia create, support and instrumentalise de-facto states for its own interests? Which other formal and informal methods does Russia use to achieve its foreign policy goals in that region? Using small-N qualitative research method, including: Data gathering and analyzing, conducting expert interviews and archival research, newspapers and reports, process tracing – the thesis looks deep into the foreign policy attitudes of the Russian Federation towards three South Caucasian countries and highlights the main patterns used by Russia to maintain Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan from the West.