Il progetto della "Grande Eurasia": la sfida russo-cinese all'ordine mondiale

This work aims to analyse the Russian project of “Greater Eurasia”, an idea which has been present in Putin’s political discourse since 2016 and which has deep roots in the Eurasianist vision. This concept — which attempts to integrate the Chinese project of the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) with the Russian “Eurasian Economic Union” (EEU) — appears to be embedded within a broader framework of conflict and tension that currently characterizes the relations between the Russian Federation and the West, resulting in the so-called "Povorot na Vostok". As a matter of fact, the Ukrainian crisis, which erupted in 2014, has significantly accelerated a process already occurring in the Nineties: the eastward shift of the axis of Eurasia and the consequent increase in the level of cooperation with Asian countries, first of all China. In particular, throughout this thesis an overview of the concept of "Eurasia" and of the "Eurasian space" will be offered, as well as the transformation of the latter as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. After this, the causes of the fracture between Russia and the West and of the consequent turn to the East of the Russian Federation will be investigated. Finally, a critical examination of the Russian project of the Greater Eurasia will be provided, the latter conceived as a crucial step in the realization of a new multipolar international order based on the collaboration with the main Asian states.