| Abstract: | Until the past few years, post-Soviet Russia devoted insufficient attention to multilateral processes of cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR). This situation gradually started to change in the period leading up to and during Russia’s stint as chair of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in 2012. An additional stimulus to more active Russian participation in institutions of regional cooperation in the APR was implementation of the policy of the “turn to the East,” which became especially urgent after the crisis of 2014 in Russia’s relations with the West. As it happened, however, Russia strengthened its ties with multilateral institutions in the APR at exactly the time when many mechanisms of cooperation were in crisis and weakened by tensions between China and the United States in the region and also by competing regional projects promoted by these powers. |
