| Summary/Abstract |
RUSSIA HAS COME a long way from being perceived as the "sick man of Asia."1 Its initial turbulent post-Soviet years under President Yeltsin gradually gave way to a more confident, stable and assertive Russia under the "Putin-Medvedev tandem." Although Russia today has been hit hard by falling energy prices and Western sanctions imposed on it after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, its recent military intervention in Syria shows that Russia still remains a force to be reckoned with and that it still aspires to play a great-power role in world affairs.
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