DOI: 10.67733/rlipe.2.1.6 ISSN: 3062-4487

Russia-Turkey: A Collective Strategy and New Factors of Political and Economic Cooperation in the Greater Black Sea Region

Tarasov Yuriy I., Zakhid Kiarimov
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The article examines Russia–Turkey political and economic cooperation in the Greater Black Sea region under sanctions pressure, regional fragmentation, and changing energy, trade, and security linkages. Rather than treating bilateral relations as a set of separate sectoral issues, the article develops a conceptual framework combining asymmetric interdependence, strategic hedging, and managed rivalry. The research question is: how do Russia and Turkey preserve functional cooperation in energy, trade, security, and institutional formats despite competing interests in Syria, Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and the Black Sea security architecture? Based on qualitative comparative analysis of open sources, official documents, statistical data, and scholarly literature, the article argues that the resilience of Russia–Turkey relations is explained not by the absence of contradictions but by both sides' capacity to institutionalize them through flexible coordination mechanisms, issue-specific bargaining, and a refusal to make a final choice between bloc discipline and autonomous regional policy. The central conclusion is that by 2030 Russia–Turkey relations are likely to retain the form of selective partnership: energy and trade interdependence will coexist with Turkey's growing strategic autonomy, the constraints of sanctions, and persistent competition for influence in adjacent regions.

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