The Russian energy policy and its international projection strategy in the Post-Soviet space (2000-2018)

• Grant number: 19/02536-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2019
• End date: September 01, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Luís Alexandre Fuccille
• Grantee: José Késsio Floro Lemos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/01466-2 - Russia's energy policy and its strategy for international projection in the post-soviet space (2000-2018), BE.EP.DR 22/01465-6 - Russia's energy policy and its strategy for international projection in the post-Soviet space (2000-2018), BE.EP.DR

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to evaluate the impacts of Russia's energy policy in the geopolitical configuration of the post-Soviet space. In other words, to identify whether the usage of energy, as an instrument of foreign policy, has attracted or alienated the countries of the region into the sphere of influence of the Russian State. Bearing in mind that Moscow has aimed not only to use its political energy but also its monopolist hydrocarbon exporter position to coerce the former Soviet republics into aligning themselves politically with the Kremlin. Seeing that, years later of the disintegration of the USSR, the perception is that the country's security conditions have begun to deteriorate. Institutions historically hostile to Russia, such as NATO and the European Union, are expanding and carrying the geopolitical interest of the West very close to Russia's borders, causing many countries of the region politically approach the western powers. Thus, aiming to achieve the desired objectives of this research, the process-tracing technique will be used, combined with the energy weapon model and the interdependence theory to explain all the stages of the use of energy as a political weapon, since the conversion of capacities to the final state of political coercion. Thus, Russia's energy policies for Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Lithuania and Estonia between 2000 and 2018 as well as their impact on the regional geopolitical environment are going to be analyzed. (AU)