Book Talk | Putin’s “Turn to the East” in the Xi Jinping Era

While most attention has focused on Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, the big story of the past decade has been the reorientation of Russia from Europe to Asia. Centered on China but not limited to it, this abrupt shift made possible Putin’s anti-West behavior. In this book talk featuring Putin’s “Turn to the East” in the Xi Jinping Era, which covers four stages in Russian policy and seven geographic regions, editors Gilbert Rozman and Gaye Christoffersen explained the duality of Russia’s ties to China: together against the US-led order but at odds over reconfiguring Asian regionalism. Their research on the development of the Sino-Russian relationship draws two conclusions: Russia has increasingly joined with China in challenging the existing order in Asia, working to forge what Moscow calls a Greater Eurasian Partnership; and Russia and China have played a cat-and-mouse game of rival strategies that, on all fronts, have been difficult to reconcile.