ALESSANDRO VITALE

Il sistema politico della Russia e lo "specchio" del Caucaso

218

Maggio-Agosto 2008

Anno LXXIII    n. 2

Summary - The goals pursued by Russia through its foreign policy have placed primary emphasis on ensuring national security and territorial integrity, on promoting a nonthreatening external environment, the economic well-being of the country, and enhancing national prestige by a centralized-authoritarian political system. However, the main paradox of contemporary Russia lies in the continuing ambivalence between the rebuilding of a centralized political system and a pervasive sense of insecurity. The imprint of the past on contemporary Russian foreign policy is clearly visible: Russia ’s insecurity led to insecurity of its neighbors. The inability to accept Russia ’s new geopolitical borders stimulates the old question of the rebuilding of an imperial state towards a renewed control within the country, its regions and across the Near Abroad. Russian foreign policy has its roots in both domestic and foreign forces: the Caucasus is a typical “mirror” of Russia ’s new internal and international condition.