Russia‟s geopolitical inetersts in the Caucasus in the period of the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia

Author(s):  D.A. Dzhologua , National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod , Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, djologua@rambler.ru

Issue:  Volume 45, №2

Rubric:  Topical issues of political science

Annotation:  The subject of the study is to investigate the geopolitical interests of Russia in the Caucasus during the Georgian-Abkhaz and the Georgian-Ossetian conflicts. The author analyzes Russia's mediating role in re-solving these conflicts, taking into account its geopolitical priorities. The consequences and results of Rus-sia‟s peacemaking activities determined to a large extent its role in the region of the Great Caucasus during the period under review. The research methodology is based on a mixture of systematic-historical and structural-functional methods. The author uses the methods of comparative analysis and historical scientific re-search, synthesis alongside with content- and event-analysis. This set of methods helps to achieve the stated research objectives, thus resulting in following conclusions: given its geopolitical status, Russia remains, in spite of US‟s attempts to maintain one‟s primacy in the region, the most influential extra-regional actor in the Caucasus. Its involvement in the region is largely determined by its peacekeeping activities and initia-tives on settling the Georgian-Abkhaz and the Georgian-Ossetian conflicts. Despite the events of August 2008 and the severance of diplomatic relations with Georgian that followed, thus producing a negative im-pact on Russia‟s position in the region, the cooperation with it remains a priority for both self-proclaimed republics, which determines to a large extent the overall configuration of the region and provides a fruitful basis for Russia‟s ensuring one‟s geopolitical and geostrategic interests in the Caucasus.

Keywords:  the post-Soviet space, the Great Caucasus, Russia, Georgia, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, peace-keeping, geopolitics, geostrategy, national interests

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