Russia First: Breaking with the West (Geographers)

Review\n“Russia First was illuminating and required reading for anyone trading with The Russian Federation. It is difficult for us to grasp the Russian mindset and their ambivalence towards both East and West. Beautifully researched.” ―Dr Paul Dyer, Hon. History Fellow of Kent University, UK, Member of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, financial markets entrepreneur and philanthropist\nFor 200 years Russia has had a love-hate relationship with the West. Anxious on the one hand to emulate Western institutions, ideas and lifestyles, while on the other, strongly nationalistic and suspicious of Western political and cultural encroachment. All signs show, argues the author, that Russia is leading back towards more comfortable and familiar territory away from the West. With most shades of Russian political opinion now firmly set on a "Russia First" policy following the West's failure to accommodate Russia's post-Communist economic and diplomatic needs, coupled with the pain associated with Western economic models, he concludes that Russia is developing its own "Tsarist" solutions with profound effects on domestic and foreign policy.