Putin Plans His Own Asia Pivot

“Russia can pivot to the Pacific, too,” declared Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, the day the 24th APEC Leader’s Meeting opened in Vladivostok, where Russia spent $21 billion in five years prior to the meeting. To be sure, Putin’s “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific was part of Russia’s grand strategy with both economic and strategic components to make Russia a truly Eurasian power. A less noticeable “pivot” was by China. Russia was where both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao made the last of their 2012 foreign visits – Hu joined the APEC meeting in Vladivostok and Wen went to Moscow for the bilateral prime ministerial meeting. Wen’s subsequent “long talk” with President Putin in Sochi highlighted the important and sensitive relationship. Meanwhile, Russian-Chinese military cooperation gained traction in the closing months of 2012.