THE DECLINE OF RUSSIA'S INFLUENCE IN THE POST-SOVIET REGION AND THE REASONS BEHIND IT

The article attempts to highlight the key economic, political, and social factors that have adverse effects on current relationship dynamics between the Russian Federation and the CIS countries and are thus responsible for the gradual decline in Russia's influence in the post-Soviet area. Authors affirm that this specific phenomenon is predetermined, on the one hand, by the aspiration of the political and economic diversification and, on the other hand, by a number of socio-cultural and psychological factors. The article argues that Russian political leaders' perception of various post-soviet countries as "pro-Russian" is biased in its conceptual core and based on a number of subjective factors that have no actual relation to the decision-making process in these countries. In reality, the foreign policy of CIS countries is based mostly on pragmatic economic interests capable of providing steady development, which makes implementation of such subjective terms as "pro-Russian" and "pro-Western" highly misleading and unproductive, especially in the current conditions of confrontation between Russia and the West.