Challenges for the Russian foreign policy - the lesson of the Georgian conflict

Abstract

This article considers the implications of the Russo-Georgian conflict for the foreign policy of Russia, focusing on two important issues - the challenges that Moscow is going to face on the area of the Commonwealth of Independent States as well as the Russian relations with the West. Considering the consequences of the Russian intervention in Georgia for the Kremlin's policy on the CIS area the analysis points out the resistance of the Commonwealth's members as well as new challenges Russia is going to face together with the growing activity of other regional powers, including China and Beijing's interests on the area. The article refers at the same time to the Western problems with a cohesive response to the policy of Russia and determinants of post-war Russia's relations with the European Union and the United States, including determinants and prospects of the Western-Russian normalization.