Karpovich O.G. Ukraine's Foreign Policy as a Projection of the State of Relations between Russia and the West

Abstract: This article is devoted to the study of the features of Ukrainian foreign policy in direct relation to the state and the main stages of the evolution of foreign policy relations between Russia and the West. A key step in the development and transformation of these relations in the years 2013-15 was the Ukrainian crisis which has qualitatively changed the relations between the two countries for many years, . The article provides analysis and description of the main stages and phases of the development of the Ukrainian crisis as a projection of US-Russian relations, demonstrating the presence of a positive feedback. Methodological bases of the research includes systemic, structural and functional, comparative-historical and comparative-political approaches, methods of induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis, observation. The main result of the study was evidence that the Ukrainian crisis has become the key point in the system of relations between Russia and Western countries, showing that Ukraine's foreign policy is a direct projection of the state of US-Russian relations. Thus, any changes in the relations between the USA and Russia lead to an immediate response in Ukraine according to a "stimulus-response" principle on the reflex level, which is basic for external control of the Ukrainian political elite in Washington.

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