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Its geographic location, domestic political complications, ethno-confessional diversity, and involvement in the global shadow economy keep Afghanistan in the center of the intertwining interests of state and extra-state forces. This threatens the country's immediate neighbors and even whole regions and explains the never weakening interest of Pakistan, India, Iran, the Central Asian Soviet successor-states, China, and Russia in what is going on in this country.

Not so long ago it seemed that by the end of the 2000s interest in Central Asia from abroad had exhausted itself and there was nothing new to add to what had already been written about the region. The West, which paid the greatest attention to the region due to the presence of America and NATO in Afghanistan, appeared to have lost its geopolitical interest in Central Asia. Washington unofficially recognized Russia's "legitimate" interests in the region as part of the reset policy, probably in the hope that Moscow's influence would be trimmed by China's increasing presence in the same region. Now, however, everything has dramatically changed: on the one hand, the intention of Russia (led once more by Vladimir Putin, the "integrator of the post-Soviet expanse") to expedite the establishment of a Eurasian Union has given the West a scare. While on the other, Western strategists are frowning at China's mounting influence in Central Asia. The Iranian, Indian, and Afghan factors are also elements to be reckoned with in the geopolitical struggle around the region. In short, the rivalry has in no way fizzled out, instead it is entering a new phase. This is amply confirmed by the works analyzed below; their authors do not limit themselves to the geopolitics, security, and international status of Central Asia; they scrutinize the domestic problems and political and socioeconomic development of the region's individual countries.

This is a survey of what has been written in Russia about Central Asia, of the subject range and scope of problems that our Russian colleagues have discussed in their works, and of what they think about the region's future. For obvious reasons, the Russian public as a whole and political scientists and politicians as its part cannot remain indifferent to what is going in Central Asia. Until quite recently, Russia and Central Asia were parts of a single state; today they remain tied together by geographic and geopolitical proximity. For these reasons, the region is still part of Russia's information expanse. The Russian Federation, which has scored quite a few foreign policy successes, is still facing old and persisting problems and is coping with the new challenges that crop up in the contemporary world. The integration initiatives formulated by Russia are hailed by some of its post-Soviet partners and rejected (or even undermined) by others. Russia, which is seeking a stronger position in Central Asia, has to take into account the fact that China, an equal (or in certain respects stronger) economic and political rival, is also present in the region. In this context, the West, as seen from Moscow, looks like the geopolitical counterbalance needed to trim Beijing's great and soaring ambitions. Afghanistan and China are two factors that Moscow cannot ignore when pursuing its otherwise independent Central Asian policy. It should be said that Kazakhstan has been and remains Russia's closest ally and strategic partner. In the context of Russia's relations with Central Asia, the interests of the sides are not always identical, however there are no contradictions between them on the most important issues, including geopolitics and strategic security. The positions and opinions of our Russian colleagues are highly important as factors directly affecting the Kremlin's Central Asian policy.