The Eastern and Western dimensions of the Russian foreign policy in the post-cold war period

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War the Russian Federation faced a number of tasks in drawing its new foreign policy agenda in the new world order. The thesis will analyze how Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin managed to handle this task and which factors did play decisive role in Yeltsin?s and Putin?s administrations? behavior considering foreign affairs. The foreign policy of two Russian presidents will be evaluated in the individual perspective and in the institutional framework of Russia in the respective period. Emerging trends in Russian foreign policy-making were numerous; the most prominent of them was Eurasianism versus Westernism ideological debate which persisted among Russian policy-makers and philosophers since the nineteenth century until nowadays. This debate was reflected in Russian foreign policy preferences when dealing with the Western and the Eastern parts of the world. It is important to find out whether Eurasianism or Westernism prevailed in Russian foreign policy agenda during Yeltsin?s and Putin?s periods or whether these ideologies were balanced or used instrumentally.This work will try to explore which factors (organizations, institutions, actors, geopolitical, security or economic considerations, as well as ideologies) stood behind one or another choice of both Yeltsin and Putin?s administrations when dealing with the Western part of the world, namely the United States (US), the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); and the Eastern part in face of Asia (East, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and Asia-Pacific) and the Middle East.