Comparison Of Russian Foreign Policy On Central Asia Between Yeltsin's And Putin's Stage

In Russian Foreign policy, Central Asia features prominently because of its special geographic advantages, strategic status and economic interests and so on. This region has been taken as Russian sphere of influence since Russian invasion in the 18th century. After the Breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991, Yeltsin's stage comes to Russia and he has once tried to carry out a foreign policy in Central Asia to cast off a burden, however some change is inevitable for a variety of reasons. Putin's stage comes in 1999 and he dialectically inherited and developed Yeltsin's foreign policy and made great changes in Central Asian policy. Therefore, the Russian policies to Central Asia differ greatly in Yeltsin and Putin governments. They differ mainly in terms of the contents and purposes of their policies and their influences on Russia, Central Asia and the whole world because of the different political backgrounds, economic situations in Russia, the different attitudes from Western countries and the two presidents'different personalities and diplomatic styles.Recently, with the changes of international situations, the geographic status and rich energy resources in Central Asia attract more and more attention from the whole world, and the competitions for this region between Russia and western powers has been become stronger and stronger. Xinjiarig Uygur Autonomous Region borders on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tadzhikistan in the west, so Russian foreign policies have a great influence upon China, and the stability of Central Asia is crucial to that of northwestern China, especially that of Xinjiang.Facing the current international situations, Russia has to rely on Commonwealth of Independent States, especially the five countries in Central Asia, if she wants to revive. Therefore, the foreign policies to Central Asia mean a great deal to Russia.