Among a diverse multitude of countries, two distinct groups can be singled out. They may be called ‘tigers’ and ‘whales.’ Some examples of ‘tigers’ would be South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. They have mainly small territories and good communication systems. Typical ‘whales’ are China, Russia, India, and Brazil. They are extremely large, and their communication systems are far from modern enough to handle their capacities. Also, whales tend to need a lot of time to make U—turns. Thus Russia, as one such political ‘whale,’ needs time to change its political mentality after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is evident that concrete problems of international relations and national identity cannot be resolved without an analysis the ‘big issues’ in global affairs. The author outlines some of these issues. In this analysis, he heavily draws on Russian official documents and interviews given by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. But the general conclusions of this paper will be unofficial, drawn by the author as a political scientist who rejects diplomatic language and addresses the problems as an absolutely unbiased, independent researcher.

Introduction Part 1. Russia Foreign and Security Strategy and the North Korean Nuclear Issue Ⅰ. Russia´s Foreign and Security Strategy in the 21st Century/ Sergei Chugrov Ⅱ. Changes in Russia-U.S. Relations and New START/ Vladimir U. Sizov Ⅲ. Russian Security Strategy in Northeast Asia and the North Korean Nuclear Issue/ Vasily Mikheev Ⅳ. The Russia-ROK Quest for a Strategic Partnership: Problems and Implications in Security Cooperation/ Georgy Toloraya Part 2. Russia Strategy for Economic Development and the Korean Peninsula Ⅴ. Main Trends and Prospects for the Russian Far East/East Siberia Region´s Cooperation with Northeast Asia/ Alexander N. Fedorovskiy Ⅵ. The Russia-to-Korea Railroad Connetion Project: Present State and Prospects/ Alexander Vorotsov Ⅶ. The Russian Position and Policies on the Tuman River Area Development Programme(TRADP)/ Svetlana Suslina Ⅷ. Russia´s Strategy Toward the Arctic/ Seok Hwan Kim Conclusion: Suggestions for Strengthening the ROK-Russia Strategic Cooperation Partnership/ In-Kon Yeo