Analysis of Russian foreign energy policy

After the dissolution of the USSR and the Cold War at the beginning of 1990s, the international system has evolved to another system in the Post-Cold War era, namely ?Unipolar hegemony of the United States?. New state Russian Federation had revealed from the long-time socialist state as a liberal and democratic state in 1991. Afterwards, new question arose in international arena in order to analyze the future of Russian Federation and power capacity. Since the independence of Russian Federation, twenty years past and during this process Moscow has challenged with many conflicts as well as successes many priorities. When the transformation period of Russian Federation from closed economy to liberal economy commenced, it was understood that the main indicator of Russian economy will be the energy resources and their production. For that reason, inevitably ?the concept of energy? revealed as a both weapon and a vulnerability of Russia. In this context, Russia formed a new kind of diplomacy that is called ?Foreign Energy policy?;?The Strategic objective of the foreign energy policy is the maximum efficient use of the Russian energy potential for full-scale integration into the world energy market, enhancement of positions thereon and gaining the highest possible profit for the national economy.?In this study it was aimed to analyze the way that Russia uses its energy privilege either hard or soft power. After picturing the Russian oil and gas reserves, pipelines, main companies and strategy documents, in order to research the Russian foreign energy policy actions, the two directions East and West of Russian energy connections have been analyzed concerning the period of last decade. Furthermore, it was observed that Russia may use energy weapon anytime it feels a threat against its national interest or regional strategy. Yet, Russia did not directly cut any supplies to Germany and Turkey is a way to establish it demand. Moreover, there are many instances that Russia uses energy card as a weapon against former Warsaw Pact and USSR states. Finally, according to the Russian analytical documents, Russian economy will maintain to depend on energy export commodities in the long term. Consequently, it is expected that Russia will continue to employ its energy privilege in case of requirement regarding to its foreign energy policy.