The central question asked in the paper is that; what are the motivations behind the United States and Russia’s clash with each other in the South Caucasus and Central Asian regions? Why as external great power the U.S. intervene into regions where Russia sees its sphere of influence. I try to give an answer to the question what the major determinants of the great power behavior in the SC and CA regions are. It is argued that weakened Russia has used mostly indirect measures in the post‑Cold war period to balance the American unilateralist hegemony, first in its neighborhood and then in the international affairs. I explain the causal determinants of the great powers clash‑in this case Russia and the U.S. – in the post‑Soviet space.