Ideas and Practice of the Russian Foreign Policy

The continuity in Russian state foreign policy revolves around two fundamental elements:the pursuit or maintenance of great power status and underlying political ideologies.Throughout both the Tsarist and Soviet periods, a primary objective was theattainment or preservation of great power status. Political ideas that developed sincethe Tsarist period put forward assumptions about national identity, the role of theRussian state in the world and geopolitics, and shaped Russian foreign policy. Russialost its great power status after the collapse of the USSR. However, under Putin'sleadership, Russia has pursued a foreign policy aimed at reclaiming this status. In thisperiod ideas influenced the decisions of Putin's and Russia's foreign policy. In light ofall these statements, this book examines the political ideas that affect the preferencesof Russian decisionmakers and the practices that emerged in Russian foreign policyimplemented during the Putin period to achieve Russia's great power status.