Russian identity and China

Traditionally and historically, the Russian self-identification process was conducted in relation to the West as Russia’s self-referring ‘other’, a tendency shared by the imperial and Soviet pasts and the post-Soviet contemporaneity. Especially since the collapse of the USSR, the focus of academic investigations of Russian identity treated the West as Russia’s ‘other’, neglecting the fact that identities are built in relation to multiple ‘others’, and discounting their influence on Russian identity. As a result, one of the actors whose influence has been disregarded as secondary in the Russian self-identification process is that of China, which is unexpected, given its historical, political, and economic relevance for Russia.

The main objective of this project is to analyse Russia-China relations from a constructivist perspective. This will constitute a shift away from the dominant realist interpretations and advance understanding of Russia-China relations as well as identity as a driver of Russian foreign policy. Concurrently, given the post-2014 rapprochement between Russia and China, this research is prompted by two main premises: the increasingly asymmetrical relationship between Russia and China and Russia’s standing perception of itself as a Great Power.