RUSSIA’S CENTRAL ASIA POLICY UNDER BORIS YELTSIN

This article seeks to analyze Russia’s Central Asia policy under President Boris Yeltsin during the 1990s. It focuses on Russia’s security and economic relations with Central Asian states. During the 1990s, along with various policies of the then ruling elite in Russia, Russia’s security and economic relations with Central Asian states, therefore its influence on the region, deteriorated considerably in comparison with the Soviet times. Main factors behind this process were general characteristics of Russian foreign policy during the 1990s; namely, confusion, lack of coherence and ineffectiveness.