Russia's pivot to Asia : constructing a Eurasian state in a multipolar world

Russia’s pivot to Asia is motivated by the conviction that its survival relies on cementing itself as a Eurasian state in a multipolar world. The primary objective is to eliminate the political , economic and military foundations sustaining the US unipolar moment, while the secondary aim is to prevent the emergence of a bipolar dynamic between the US and China that would empower Russia’s main challengers in the East and the West. A two-tiered balance-of-power is thus pursued as China is Russia’s key ally as a bridgehead to Asia and an indispensable balance to the US. Albeit, concurrently developing a regional balance-of-power in the Indo-Pacific region as to prevent China from emerging as an unconstrained hegemon. These ambitious and the somewhat conflicting objects are formidable, but achievable due to the favourable geopolitical climate. While the balance-of-power logic in Europe creates incentives for excluding Russia from the main institutions and the security architecture, in the Indo-Pacific region there are systemic pressures for accommodating Russia. China shares the objective of integrating Eurasia and needs Russia for energy supply, as a physical land-bridge to Europe, and to balance the US. The failure of the rest of the region to accommodate Russia would result in excessive reliance on China, thus augmenting Beijing’s power further, something even the US should be careful to avoid. Russia appears to replace geopolitics with geo-economics as a balance of power is sought primarily by controlling markets rather than territory. Trade and monetary policies, and the physical energy and transport infrastructure, spearheads Russia’s geo-strategic project of bolstering itself as an indispensable power in an integrated Eurasia.