Table Of ContentRussia Resurrected
Russia Resurrected
Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order
KATHRYN E. STONER
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Stoner, Kathryn, 1965– author.
Title: Russia resurrected : its power and purpose in a new global order /
Kathryn Stoner, Stanford University.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020040284 (print) | LCCN 2020040285 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190860714 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190860738 (epub) |
ISBN 9780190054571
Subjects: LCSH: Russia (Federation)— Foreign relations— 21st century. |
Russia (Federation)— Politics and government— 1991– |
Russia (Federation)— Economic conditions— 1991– |
Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1952— Influence. | Russia (Federation)— Forecasting. |
International relations— Forecasting.
Classification: LCC DK510.764 .S76 2021 (print) | LCC DK510.764 (ebook) |
DDC 327.47— dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2020040284
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2020040285
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780190860714.001.0001
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Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
For my parents,
Joan Boyd and Norman Stoner,
with gratitude for inspiring a love of learning in me
“In just 30 years, we have undergone changes that took centuries
in other countries.”
— Vladimir Putin, March 1, 2018, Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
List of Figures xiii
List of Tables xvii
Note on Transliterations xix
SECTION I: RUSSIA AND THE DIMENSIONS
OF STATE POWER
1. Is Russia Resurrected? 3
SECTION II: THE GEOGRAPHIC DOMAIN AND
POLICY SCOPE OF RUSSIAN POWER
2. Where Does Russia Matter? 31
3. Where (Else) in the World Is Russia? 69
SECTION III: THE MEANS OF RUSSIAN POWER
4. The Unsteady Economic Basis of Russian Power 119
5. Russian Society as Power Resource or Constraint? 155
6. Russian Hard Power 181
7. Russian Soft and Sharp Power Resources 216
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viii Contents
SECTION IV: THE PURPOSES BEHIND RUSSIAN
POWER PROJECTION ABROAD
8. The Domestic Determinants of Russia’s Resurrection 235
Notes 269
Index 303
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book began on a bus in Novgorod Oblast (province) in Russia in September
2013. I was at a conference and as part of the program, our hosts took us to a
monastery as part of a cultural break from our meetings. I had the pleasure of
sitting next to a Russian colleague on the bus, a younger specialist in Russian
foreign policy. We chatted amicably about the conference and the surrounding
countryside, and eventually the conversation turned to the emerging hostility
between our two countries. “What,” I asked him, “is the point of Putin’s foreign
policy these days?” His reply both surprised and amused me: “Oh, that’s easy!”
he said “To beat you.”
I was amused because he evidently didn’t know that I am actually Canadian
by birth, although I do hold dual citizenship with the United States. As an in-
ternational power, Russia surely outpaced Canada at the time. But his reply also
surprised me because in the United States, Russia was not seen as a “peer power”
at the time, and it struck me that policy makers back in Washington would not
have considered Russia a particularly capable global challenger in 2013.
I returned to the United States a few days later intent on seeing exactly
where and how Russia could “beat us” in international politics. As my research
progressed, and as I attended seminars at Stanford University, my home base,
and conferences in Washington, DC, I came to realize that American political
and military leaders I spoke with mostly dismissed Russia as either a regional
power or, as one prominent member of the intelligence community said, “like
North Korea; that is, Russia’s at the ‘little table’ but it wants to be at the ‘big
table’ with us and Europe and China. Problem is, it’s just not there.” My research,
however, was beginning to demonstrate already that this sort of assessment
of Russian capabilities was outdated. It would also prove calamitous as subse-
quent events demonstrated – not least of which was Russian interference in the
2016 US presidential elections. But beyond that, since Vladimir Putin’s return
to the presidency in 2012, Russia appeared to outfox the West at every turn.
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