In the emerging system of international relations, Russian-Turkish relations go far beyond bilateral interaction and reflect a complex and multi-layer subsystem of international relations with external and internal variables. In the Black Sea region or extended Black Sea region (including Armenia and Azerbaijan) and the Eastern Mediterranean region, Russia and Turkey are rivals and partners (but not allies) on a whole range of issues of regional and global interaction. The situation with the Astana format and the genesis of the Syrian conflict has testified to this. The purpose of the research is to study the current trends in bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey and the geostrategy of the two powers in the Black Sea region and the Eastern Mediterranean region. The authors come to the conclusion that Turkey is integrated into the Western system of containing Russia in the Black Sea region, while at the same time it has significant foreign policy autonomy from its Western allies, which the authors place within the geostrategic logic of the “Turkish balance”. This implies a significant sphere of partnership with the Russian Federation, but does not negate the duality and existence of Turkish-Russian confrontation in the wider Black Sea region, which is projected through it to post-Soviet Central Asia. In the Eastern Mediterranean region, Turkey’s Western allies have created conditions for containing Ankara in the logic of double containment of rivals and allies. Therefore, the transfer of the logic of the “Turkish balance” (which assumes Ankara’s opposition of Russia’s foreign policy activity to the West and opposition of Western expansion to Russia’s power) to the Eastern Mediterranean from the Black Sea is functional for Turkey. The shift in the established balance between the two powers in recent decades is fraught with their being drawn into a direct military conflict.
Turkey, Türkiye, Russia, Black Sea region, Eastern Mediterranean, cooperation conflict, Turkish balance.