This is a wonderful analysis of the long routes taken by Russia in its quest for a multipolar world. These aspirations go back to the Russian Sergei Witte and his roadmap for an Eurasian political economy. He was following the political agenda of Georg Friedrich List, even going as far back as Alexander Hamilton.
The pre-history of the New Silk Road is already touched upon. It was these movements that gave Anglo-American Halford John Mackinder nightmares.
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