The article describes two foreign policy projects of the USA and the Turkish Republic: the Greater Middle East and the Strategic Depth. Using a system-oriented approach and comparing the foreign policy initiatives of Washington and Ankara, the author uncovers the model of contradictions between the global foreign-policy approach of the USA and the local foreign-policy approach of the Turkish Republic, and identifies the window of Russian opportunities for pursuing national interests in the Near and Middle East that is creating an advantageous balance of forces in the resource-poor setting and is taking advantages of contradictions between the global and local powers. The author is the advocate of the practical politics approach. In this view, the starting point to estimate Russia's geopolitical interests in the Black and Mediterranean Seas region is to estimate what is left after the end of the Soviet period in the development of Russia. From the point of view of a geopolitical approach, after the disintegration of the USSR, Russia lost its personality in the Mediterranean Sea region and was losing it rapidly in the Black Sea basin. The five-day Russian and Georgian conflict in August 2008 and the return of the Crimea in 2014 became the historical turning point. Russia's geopolitical interests in the Black and Mediterranean Seas region are developing based on the following opportunities and mechanisms. First, modern Russian interests in the Black Sea region are based on the prevention of the expansion of the non-regional power (the USA) or the hostile military-political bloc that was achieved before and nowadays due to dividing the spheres of influence with the Turkish Republic. Second, the goal of the modern Russian interests in the Mediterranean Sea region is more complicated due to the lack of resources, and is based on maintaining the after-effect of the USSR influence and creating an advantageous balance of forces. The Turkish Republic is a regional subject that is at the same time an opponent and a partner of Russia in both regions. For Russia, Turkey is as well a key to the Mediterranean Sea region. At the same time, Turkey can be the "cork" blocking Russia in the Black Sea. The Montreux Convention signed in 1936 regarding the regime of the straits is still valid. The author compares the foreign-policy lines of the ruling Justice and Development Party and Russian foreign-policy priorities and discovers a section of mutual Russian and Turkish interests and frames of the contradictions. The research shows that in many aspects the American Greater Middle East plan and the Turkish Strategic Depth foreign-policy doctrine prevented the implementation of the two, which resulted in a window of opportunities for Russia's foreign policy in this region.
