The divide over Russia’s Asian policies came into the open and sharpened as hopes for Trump changing US policy have been dashed and Putin’s prominent role at the Belt and Road Initiative summit failed to yield tangible benefits. The mainstream view calls for staying the course, tweaking the label from “Turn to the East” to “Greater Eurasia” while rejecting the notion that China is on the path of regional hegemony or that Russia is failing to diversify. On the other hand, a more emboldened critique asserts that Russia’s plans for joining the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and building a stronger SCO are pipedreams, as are claims that Russia’s ties to ASEAN, India, and other states should be taken seriously as ways to constrain China’s quest for hegemony without tackling that challenge directly. The critique lacks clarity as to what alternative exists to the current course, while the mainstream blithely predicts triangularity with China and the United States—a balanced Eurasia in which Russia need not defer to China, and continues to lead a geo-economic, geostrategic, and geo-cultural sphere in spite of alarm that Kazakhstan is cutting its own deals with China with corridors bypassing Russia.    

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