RUSSIA BETWEEN THE WEST AND THE EAST: A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BY SOCIOLOGICAL METHODS

Abstract

The article analyzes the international relations of the Russian Federation with the countries of the West and the East on the basis of a systematic approach using sociological methods, namely: expert surveys and express surveys in the form of interviews, participant observation, content analysis of scientific literature and publications in the media. A historical approach was also used, which made it possible to perform a comparative analysis of data presented not statically, but dynamically. The author shows the transition from cooperation between countries (Russia and the USA, European and Asian states), strengthening and interdependence between states and groups of countries, overcoming the consequences of the Cold War and strengthening the openness of the world to the growth of a new confrontation, which the collective West has gone to. Under pressure from the United States, the European Union and a number of Asian countries have undertaken a series of package sanctions against the Russian Federation in order to destroy our country's economy, undermine its security, create obstacles to obtaining new technologies and destroy production chains with foreign partners. All this became a manifestation of unfair competition on the part of the United States and was most clearly highlighted in the energy sector (oil and gas), in which America wanted to prevent Russia's hydrocarbon exports to Europe, oust our country from the energy market and seize its positions in the fuel and energy sector. By its actions against the Russian Federation, the collective West violated trade and economic relations at the global level, undermined monetary and financial interactions based on the Bretton Woods system and facilitated the transition of a number of countries to settlements in national currencies. We investigated all these diverse problems using sociological methods, and the expert assessments obtained during the interview helped to trace the dynamics of the changing situation in Russia's relations with Western and East-Asian partners in order to find optimal ways and directions of cooperation.