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The completion of the natural gas pipeline 'Power of Siberia' in 2019 creates new dynamics in Eurasian trade. Russia's deepening ties with China present it with the opportunity to change its relationship with the European Union from monopsony to monopoly, thus gaining bargaining leverage. However, this argument goes both ways, being also applicable to Russo–Chinese affairs, with the European Union as the alternative option. The article concludes that Russia, while seriously strengthened by its developing energy relationship with China, will not endanger its status as a reliable supplier across Eurasia, since its nascent monopoly position depends on the existence of an alternative option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia has sought to maintain its influence in the South Caucasus by a variety of means, viewing the region as an area of crucial importance for its core strategic interests. However, China's prominence in the South Caucasus has increased significantly over the past decade, as the South Caucasus states seek to diversify their diplomatic and economic ties. This essay explores whether Russia's regional hegemony in the South Caucasus is being challenged by China: does China's growing engagement with the states of the South Caucasus pose a challenge to Russian influence within its traditional zone of 'privileged interest'? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major powers have long used cultural institutes to enhance their appeal in foreign countries. As aspirant powers, Russia and China have recently launched cultural institutes of their own with the aim of improving their international reputations. However, the location and operations of the Confucius Institutes and Russkiy Mir Institutes often seem to run counter to these aims. Drawing on policy diffusion theory (PDT), we argue that these choices are less the product of strategic calculation than of policy emulation and decoupling. Using a mixed methods approach, we show that, while the Confucius Institutes and Russkiy Mir Institutes were modelled after their Western counterparts (emulation), China and Russia have operated their institutes in ways that go against the principles of cultural diplomacy (decoupling). An analysis of field research on these institutes suggests more overall decoupling with Confucius Institutes than with Russkiy Mir Institutes, which might help account for the relatively greater backlash against the Confucius Institutes in their host countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NGOs have been seen as an integral part of civil society and a necessary feature of democratic transition. It has been argued that depoliticised NGOs in China 'embedded' in existing political structures would eventually bring about democratic changes through incremental actions, as they did in post-Soviet Russia. Both countries, however, recently witnessed the shrinking of political and legal space for public participation, especially for foreign-funded civil society organisations. This article analyses the impact of the NGO laws on civil society in Russia and China to update the embedded activism hypothesis. It draws on empirical data to describe the strategies that the NGOs use to adapt and how the future of the sector is perceived by young people in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this article is two-pronged. First, it highlights China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) initiative as a Eurasia-centred project that, distinct from the twentieth-century Eurasianism, aims to introduce a new comprehensive integrationist agenda to the Eurasian strategic landscape. Second, it compares the US-led Euro-Atlanticism and the emerging Eurasianism, holding that while the former has historically stressed security over development (development is seen as contingent on the establishment of a hard security regime), the latter prioritises development over security (security is viewed as contingent on the establishment of an inclusive economic regime). Thus, this research argues that, if implemented successfully, OBOR could challenge Euro-Atlanticism as the long-held normative paradigm of interstate relations by offering a systemic alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The different agreements on oil and natural gas signed by Russian and Chinese companies testify to the profound changes in the oil and gas policies of both Russia and China. We stress the importance of the contractual norms which structure the energy interdependency of the countries involved. As there is no international multilateral framework able to manage energy supply security, the way the countries involved construct their energy interdependence to an extent defines models of sectoral governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]