title: Russia Turns East Again?
abstract: This chapter examines the background to Russia's 'Eastern' turn - particularly towards China - in response to Western sanctions over Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Beyond rediscovering a Eurasian vocation, Russia has a second more general deep-seated foreign policy priority. The crisis over Crimea sped up rather than launched the turn to the East. During the previous decade, Russia and China had signed two important contracts for an oil pipeline to the Far East. The Russian and Chinese militaries c