Excerpt:
One more explanation for this new policy toward the Muslim world is the quest for a post-Soviet Russian identity at home and abroad. This is not just political opportunism. In 2005, the academic Sergei Rogov wrote in the official Foreign Ministry review: "The Islamic factor in Russian policy is first and foremost a question of identity. ... That is one of the reasons why Russia cannot yet be a nation state in the European sense of the term. ... Our relations with the Islamic world directly affect our security."
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