| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
As Russia mulls its next move in Ukraine, consideration of its allies' reactions might have greater weight than the response of the West. The strength of Russia's reaction to events in Ukraine should have surprised no one. Two of the major preoccupations of Russian foreign policy in the last decade have been efforts to bolster governments under assault from their restive populations and, from Moscow's perspective, the threat of external intervention, and a determination to establish and defend a zone of privileged interests across the former Soviet Union by making progress with its integration projects. In Ukraine in February 2014, those two preoccupations came into full alignment. Margelov's statement captures Russia's general disapproval of the disorder created by the Arab Spring, and the sense of an immediate threat to Russia that is implicit in an EU-assisted coup d'état happening on its doorstep.
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