Russia’s Behavior Model in International System: An Attempt to Access a Favorable Balance of Power (2014 – 2018)

Following the collapse of USSR, an increase of western influence in geopolitical and security areas in Russia, has been one of the effective factors in the interaction between Moscow and western countries especially the United States. Some impetuses such as enlargement of the European Union, and NATO, democracy promotion in post-soviet atmosphere and the Eastern Partnership have been effective on the formation of disagreement – cooperation paradox between west and Europe. West’s last attempt for increasing influence in post – soviet atmosphere, was Ukraine’s crisis and Crimea’s accession to Russia. This crisis highlighted the point of contrast between Russia and the west. The present literature addresses the following question: Which model has Russia taken for interacting with international system, especially west, since 2014? The authors argue that since 2014, Russia has chosen the balance of power strategy as a behavioral model to confront international system and the west. Russia’s most important features of balance of power are countering with the United States’ unilateralism; accepting US and China as main actors; hard and soft balance; as well as regionalism. Using explanatory – analytical research method, the authors try to tell why the research findings provide an answer to the research questions.