The "Primakov Doctrine": Russia's Zero-Sum Game with the United States Ariel Cohen, Ph.D. Senior Policy Analyst1 The Heritage Foundation FYI No. 167 December 15, 1997 Russian Foreign Minister Evgenii Primakov is claiming credit for calming Saddam Hussein during the recent Iraqi crisis. However, Primakov's role in temporarily defusing the crisis should be seen not as an exercise in diplomatic finesse, but as an important sign of Russia's new post-Cold War foreign policy and as part of a larger strategy to challenge America's leadership role in global security.2 The purpose of this strategy is to build a Eurasian counterbalance to the...