Russia Foreign Policy Challenges in Central Asia: Putin's Second Presidency

Following the collapse of USSR, Russia was neglected from a serious attention towards Central Asia and Caucasus countries due to its own internal issues. Therefore a geopolitical vacuum emerged in this region and was followed by the activities of both regional players (including Iran, Turkey and the Zionist Regime); and transregional ones (the US and NATO). The conceptualization of “Near Abroad” in Russia’s national security document in 2015 and Putin’s second presidency, as well as Russia’s political, economic and social ties with Central Asian Republics, all led to Russia’s serious attention once again towards the mentioned Republics, afterward referred to as Russia’s “backyard” or “sphere of influence”. In order to scrutinize Russia’s most important foreign policy challenges, using explanatory – analytical method, the present article attempts to answer the following question: Which factors are within Russia’s most important foreign policy challenges for expanding its cooperation in Central Asia according to national security document and during Putin’s second presidency? Using defensive realism, the author believes that NATO’s expansion to East, terrorist activities in the region and United States unilateralism are Russia’s most important foreign policy challenges in Central Asia.