Is the Post-Covid-19 Crisis Era a Critical Juncture in Russia's Attitude towards the West?

2020 was the 21st century's most disruptive and unsettling year to the date, generating an exceptionally strained economic and geopolitical context worldwide, and in Russia in particular. The rapid spreading of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing sanitary and economic crises that followed several years of economic slowdown, the oil-price war with Saudi Arabia, the recently created "entente" with China against Western allies and the continuing alienation from the West represented just several of the challenges that Russia faced. Furthermore, the Covid-19 crisis proved to be an unprecedented test for Russian decision-makers, demonstrating that despite the self-isolation policy applied during the recent years, the national economy is still extremely sensitive to external shocks and is not able to withstand them alone. In this new general context, our paper aims to assess the resilience of the Russian economy in the face of the Covid-19 crisis by analysing its main vulnerabilities, as well as the current validity of the national strategies and alliances, and the new potential opportunity revealed by the crisis -that of reopening the dialogue with Western economies with the view of improving bilateral relations and future cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]