The analysis of trans-Caucasus policy of Russian Federation: continuity or transformation

Throughout history, Trans-Caucasus has witnessed important power struggles among many important actors such as the Ottoman Empire, Mongols, Safavids and the Byzantine Empire. Political units established by Russians (The Russian Tsardom, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) were among them as well. The connection of the Russians with the Region traced back to the 11th century. Russian dominance, dated back to the 11th century, on Trans-Caucasus began after Ivan IV had conquered Kazan and Astrakhan. The Russian Tsardom's absolute hegemony on Trans-Caucasus occured via prevailing over two powerful regional power (The Ottoman Empire and Kadjar Iran) in the second quarter of 19th century. Aforementioned hegemony of Russians on Trans-Caucasus was sustained uninterruptedly except the years between 1917 and 1922 until dissolution of the USSR in 1991. With the disintegration of the USSR and the independence proclamation of the Trans-Caucasus Republics, the Region became one of the areas of the power struggle called the New Great Game, RF had to struggle with powerful regional and extra-regional actors in order to ensure its historical hegemony on Trans-Caucasus. In this context in our thesis, the Trans-Caucasus policy of the Russian Federation between 1991-2018 will be analyzed within the framework of the concept of hegemony in the light of events and facts such as "Five Day War", "Four Day War", the annexation of Crimea by RF and frozen conflicts.