Evolution of Russia's Foreign Policy in the Arctic

The paper belongs to the sphere of international relations aiming at studying evolution of Russia’s foreign policy in the Arctic from 1991 to 2016 and identification of the factors that influence generation Russia’s foreign policy in the Arctic. This issue requires deep study of Russia’s actions in the Arctic, official documents accepted by Russian government and the Arctic Council. The project is intended to elucidate the reason of two trends dominating in Russia’s Arctic foreign policy: multilateral cooperation and assertion of its national interests as the major regional power. The approach used in the research is realism in combination with such methods as event analysis and case study. In the research the definition of the region and the specific characteristics of the Arctic region are determined, the main stages of generation of Russia’s foreign policy in the Arctic and its tendencies are identified, the main factors that affect Russia’s foreign policy in the Arctic are defined. The results suggest that Russia’s foreign policy in the Arctic is influenced by the complex of factors on the structural, regional and state levels.