Cold Peace: Russia's New Imperialism

The Russian regime under President Vladimir Putin has embarked on a coherent long-term strategy to regain its influence over former satellites and to limit Western penetration in key parts of this region. Moscow is intent on steadily rebuilding Russia as a major power on the Eurasian stage and will use its neighbors as a springboard for expanding its dominance. In this first systematic analysis detailing Russia's post-Cold War imperialism, Bugajski challenges the contemporary equivalent of Cold War appeasement, which views Russia as a benign and pragmatic power that seeks cooperation and integration with the West.

Russia has just announced to "rogue states" and anyone else who will listen that they have firepower, and they know how to use it. This probably comes as no surprise to Bugajski, who is the director of the East Europe Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is convinced that the Putin administration plans to reassemble the former soviet state and reassert power over East Europe through acts of imperialism that belie its claims that it seeks to cooperate with the West. He offers as proof recent policies and acts indicating that Russia does not intend to remain the benign and rather backward former superpower it now appears to be. Bugajski's notes serve as his references. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Foreign Affairs

Bugajski provides the first detailed, tightly woven assessment of post-Soviet Russian policy in eastern Europe, and it is highly critical. Russia is Russia, still locked in its imperial ways, determined to restore its dominance over lost territory, penetrate and neutralize NATO's central European members, and regain by stealth some kind of competitive position with the United States. Were Russia moving toward democracy or shedding its imperial mentality the quest for restored power and place would not be a threat. Because Russia is not, its actions from the Baltic to the Balkans call for what can fairly be described as a neo-containment policy on the part of the United States and, Bugajski hopes, its transatlantic allies. Even those who see Russian policy in less black-and-white terms will learn much from this systematic, informed treatment of Russia's relations with every part of this region—from Belarus to Croatia, Estonia to Bulgaria.

JANUSZ BUGAJSKI is Director of the East European Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He has served as a consultant for both government and private organizations and has lectured at numerous American and European universities. He chairs the South-Central Europe area studies program at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State, and is the author or editor of several books on the region.