This book places Eurasia in its entirety within a single explanatory framework and examines for the first time to that extent Russia as a Eurasian energy power in its affairs with the two main geopolitical players of the region the EU and China. Part of this geopolitical space is the Former Soviet Union FSU region which shares deep historicalpolitical ties with Russia and constitutes the necessary crossing for the latters natural gas supplies en route to the EU market. In this way an energy triangle is established with Russia at the top angle the EU in the left angle China in the right angle and the FSU region the median. Following the scheme three bipolar relationships emerge RussiaFSU region RussiaEU and RussiaChina with each of them representing a different type of bilateral cooperation. In the first case there is an asymmetric relationship with one actor being overly powerful in terms of energy to impose its conditions economic and political on the other. In the second case there is a symmetric relationship with both actors having equal means of pressure at their disposal. Finally in the third case there is balanced relationship with both actors trading on an equal basis. Within this framework one of the dominant theoretical debates in the field of International Relations that between Neorealism and Neoliberal Institutionalism the socalled NeoNeo debate seeks to shed light on the governing rationale beyond Putins Russia foreign energy policy visavis the FSU region the EU and China. show more