Undeniably, the post-Soviet space in the recent years has become the staging ground for ambitious power play for establishing regional supremacy and global hegemony between Moscow and Washington. Russia, while determined to reestablish Kremlin’s great power status by reasserting its regional hegemony by keeping out the US behind the redline, Washington endeavors to establish its global supremacy by containing Russia in its own backyard through its own networks. After Georgia in 2008, the recent victim of this geopolitical engagement between Moscow and Washington is Ukraine. The intensive worldwide discussion and debate over Ukraine crisis over the last several months speaks about the aggravation of position between Russia and the west, particularly the US, in the geopolitical space of Kiev. Yet, the taproot of the Ukraine crisis goes far beyond Kiev and Crimea. The NATO enlargement in Eastern Europe; staging of movements like Orange, Tulip and Color revolutions; construction of alternative gas pipeline to undermine Russian monopoly over the control and administration of gas lines; and resurgent Russia under Putin’s leadership with an intent to reinstate Russian hegemony in and around the post-Soviet space for all practical purposes have been the central elements of discord between Russia and the west where Ukraine plays just a role of catalyst. Against this background, this paper makes a modest attempt to understand Ukraine crisis from a geopolitical perspective. It endeavors to analyze the nature of reengagement of Russia and the US in the geostrategic belt of former Soviet Union. The study looks into the Russian strategies to reassert its influence in the near abroad. Besides, the US policy towards the former republics of the Soviet Union in order to ease the Russian overpresence in the region is also studied minutely. Finally, the paper proposes how Ukraine is not a victim and instead a catalyst in the game played out in eastern Europe and warns about the far-reaching consequences it will have for the regional order.

Since the end of the Cold War, for the second time, unilateral America and the resurgent Russian unresolved contradictions are out in the open, that too in the former Soviet space. The post-Soviet space in the recent years has become the staging ground for ambitious power play for establishing regional supremacy and global hegemony between Moscow and Washington. While Russia is determined to reestablish Kremlin’s great power status by reasserting its regional hegemony by keeping out the US behind the redline, Washington endeavors to establish its global supremacy by containing Russia in its own backyard by creating its own network of eastward expansion of NATO in east Europe; construction of BTC pipeline—an alternate pipeline to undermine the Russian monopoly over the pipeline routes—and creation of regional disorder by supporting and sustaining Color, Tulip and Orange revolutions in the post-Soviet space to challenge the Russian hold over the strategic region.

Determined to keep the US out of the Russian geopolitical orbit, Kremlin has been actively reasserting itself in the post-Soviet space, particularly after Putin’s emergence to power in Moscow. However, right after the disintegration of the great Soviet Union, Russia wanted to have a united alliance with all the former Soviet Republics through the elaborate structure of the Commonwealth of Independent States, then through Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), later by use of energy as an instrument of political pressure, and to some extent by Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and even by military means like the 2008 Russo-Georgian war and the recent Ukraine crisis. Among all the above-mentioned initiatives taken by Russia to keep intact its influence in the post-Soviet space, the last two events that happened in Georgia and Ukraine created ripples in the world politics and led to aggressive engagement between Russia and West, especially between Russia and the US. Against this background, the paper makes a modest attempt to analyze the Russo-American relations in the light of the recent Ukraine crisis. The study looks into the Russian strategies to reassert its influence in the near abroad. Besides, the US policy towards the former republics of the Soviet Union in order to ease the Russian overpresence in the region is also studied minutely.

International Relations Journal, NATO, Russo-American Engagement, Ukraine, Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Geopolitics, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), European Union (EU), East Europe.