title: Russian Perspectives on China’s New Silk Road Vision (Why) Does Moscow Support the BRI?
abstract: Many Russian analysts and officials recognize that the expansion of Chinese influence through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) represents a fundamental, long-term challenge. Yet cooperation between Moscow and Beijing in the regions encompassed by the BRI appears to be increasing at the institutional, economic, and diplomatic levels. Russian reactions to the BRI have gone through three phases: immediately following Xi Jinping’s September 2013 proclamation of the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st