After a fine start to 2014 for Russia with the Sochi Olympics, things quickly went rather bad. A collapsing oil price and Western sanctions after the annexation of Crimea crippled the ruble; a crisis in December left the currency’s value almost halved. Amid growing anxiety about Moscow's intentions among its Central Asian neighbors, Russia is facing possibly its deepest economic crisis since 1998. Relations with Europe and the U.S. are worse than at any time since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

As global demand for energy supplies grew, Russia's Far East and Eastern Siberia in 2013 acquired ever more importance in the region's geopolitics. Moscow and Beijing reached accord on joint development of key oil fields in Eastern Siberia. But Moscow used arms sales to Vietnam as part of an apparent effort to thwart Chinese hegemony in the South China Sea. Still, just as Russian comparative economic advantage with Europe and the West has derived primarily from oil and gas, so has integration with Asia hinged on energy.