Development Cooperation or Competition?

More than 20 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union Russia returns to the stage of international development aid. In their study, Evgeniya Bakalova and Hans-Joachim Spanger present a detailed picture of the evolving field of Russian development policy and analyze its cooperative or competitive potential with regard to the Western-dominated international activities. While Russia’s emerging development cooperation faces multiple dilemmas and currently finds itself at a crossroads, the country’s postulated non-ideological approach might provide fruitful ground for a productive exchange between the ‘traditional’ donor community and the ‘new’ donor.