Geopolitical motives for Russia's orientation towards Central Asia

Abstract

Political geography represents an important aspect of geography that clarifies the impact of geographical reality on the political factor and its impact on it. Russia works to exploit its distinctive geographical reality in terms of its vast geographical extension and the nature of its wealth and exploit it in an optimal way that guarantees the state’s benefit from all its economic resources in service of its geopolitical aspirations within its vital sphere. The research, after relying on political geography methods, including descriptive and analytical ones, focuses on the nature of Russia’s foreign political orientation towards Central Asia in light of Russia’s reliance on modern geopolitical ideas that contributed to raising the economic and political value of the Central Asian region, which affected the nature of the behavior of the Russian political system in building the strategy of the Russian orientation, especially after the year 2000 AD, and the nature of the events and changes witnessed by the world and the economic trend to exploit economic wealth and depend on the energy file and what Central Asia possesses of precious wealth and meanings such as gold, copper, aluminum, tin and uranium, especially after the independence of the Central Asian republics and the increase in their external aspirations and rapprochement with the West and the United States of America.