Seen in historical perspective, Russia’s latest turn to the east is not new. “From the shores of the Pacific and the heights of the Himalayas, Russia will dominate not only the affairs of Asia but those of Europe as well.” The Russian statesman who wrote those words was not Vladimir Putin, as some might suspect, but Count Sergey Witte, Alexander III’s finance minister, in a memo to his monarch in 1893. Witte, the architect of Russia’s industrial revolution, launched the trans-Siberian Railroad, aimed at opening up the resources of the eastern two-thirds of Russia and giving Moscow the means to establish its presence as a great power in the Pacific.
以历史的眼光来看，俄罗斯最近“战略重心向东方转移”并不新鲜。“从太平洋之滨到喜马拉雅山之巅，俄罗斯不仅将主导亚洲的事务，还将主导欧洲的事务。” 这句话并非如一些人或许在怀疑的那样、出自弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)之口，而是出自沙皇亚历山大三世(Alexander III)的财政大臣谢尔盖•维特伯爵(Count Sergey Witte)，1893年，他在给君主的奏折上写下了这句话。维特是俄罗斯工业化革命的设计师，曾推动修建西伯利亚大铁路(Trans-Siberian Railway)，以求开发俄罗斯东部三分之二国土蕴含的资源，并且让莫斯科能够确立俄罗斯作为太平洋大国的存在。