Spoils of a War: Impact of Georgia-Russia War on Russian Foreign and Security Policies in the ‘Near Abroad’

Prior to the war in Georgia in August 2008, Russia’s efforts to maintain and strengthen its influence in the ‘near abroad’ had been challenged by its competitors. Hence, the war in Georgia over South Ossetia came just in a right moment for Russian leadership to strongly reassert the presence of Russia’s exclusive interests in the ‘near abroad’. In this study, the war in Georgia is treated as an event not being a total game-changer but an event capable of having important geopolitical implications in the ‘near abroad’. Thus, the article argues that Russia’s reaction to Georgia aimed to carry out what it had already been doing politically and economically, now in a heightened alert with multifarious tools to enhance Russian national interests in the ‘near abroad’. Despite harsh criticism and some measures taken particularly by the US and the EU, Russia has largely succeeded in taking the ‘near abroad’ back into its influence. Russia has been doing this through a number of methods showing the very bases of Russia’s pre-Georgian war realism. After identifying Russian conception of ‘near abroad’ before the War, the study will delve into four policy areas through which Russia’s geopolitical re-claim in the same region is thought to be best identified: Russia curbing the US and the EU, Collective Security Treaty Organization for deepening security space, Shanghai Cooperation Organization for widening security space and energy pipelines for making Russia ‘great’ again.