Vladimir Putin and Central Asia: The Shaping of Russian Foreign Policy (Culture and Society in Western and Central Asia)

President Vladimir Putin's consent after September 11th to the deployment of Western forces in Central Asia and to the US military's use of Central Asian airfields during the US-led operations in Afghanistan represented a dramatic turn in Russian Central Asian policy. How and why did Russian policy change? Was this in part due to Russia's decline in influence on the international arena? Lena Jonson examines Putin's policy from 1999 to 2004 towards Afghanistan and the four key states that surround it: Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan and examines how Russia dealt with both the new security challenges of the region and increased foreign engagement.