Cosmin GUȚANU
| Abstract: | In the context of the new Russian imperialism, a phenomenon that Europe has been facing since 2014 when the power from the Kremlin occupied the Crimean Peninsula, we consider it necessary to re-evaluate the geopolitical and geostrategic situation in Eastern Europe, in the two areas of contact, namely the Baltic coast and the Pontic one. In the north of the continent, the Kaliningrad exclave has a special strategic importance for Russia, as an outpost of its commercial and military interests, supported by the Russia-Belarus relationship and Saint Petersburg, the legacy of Tsar Peter. The main strategic objectives of Russia in the Pontic area are, just like in the last three centuries since Catherine the Great conquered the northern shore of the Black Sea, the straits that give Moscow access to the Mediterranean Sea and later in the Atlantic Ocean. It is primarily about the Kerch Strait, which Russia fully controls, along with the Azov Sea since 2014 when Russia recaptured Crimea by force and especially about the Bosphorus and Dardanelle. |
| Keywords: | Russia, ideology, geostrategy, Kaliningrad, Baltic Sea, Black Sea |