Moscow, Russia (CU)_ President Vladimir Putin adopted a new foreign policy doctrine based on the notion of a “Russian World,” which is a conceptual framework used by hardliners to justify action overseas in defense of Russian-speakers. According to the 31-page humanitarian policy that was issued more than six months into the war in Ukraine, “Russia should protect, safeguard and advance the traditions and ideals of the Russian World”.
The idea was enshrined as official policy and presented as a soft power strategy. The policy has been used in the past to justify Moscow’s annexation of sections of Ukraine and backing for breakaway pro-Russian entities in the east of the nation. According to the new policy, “The Russian Federation provides support to its compatriots living abroad in the fulfillment of their rights, to ensure the protection of their interests and the preservation of their Russian cultural identity”. According to the report, “Russia’s ties with its compatriots abroad allowed it to strengthen on the international stage its image as a democratic country striving for the creation of a multi-polar world”.
For years, Putin has emphasized what he views as the unfortunate destiny of some 25 million ethnic Russians who lived outside of Russia in newly independent republics when the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, an event he refers to as a geopolitical tragedy. Russia has always viewed the former Soviet region, from the Baltics to Central Asia, as its rightful sphere of influence, despite vehement opposition from a number of these nations and the West.
According to the new policy, Russia should boost its collaboration with Slavic states, China, and India, as well as deepen its relations with the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. It stated that Moscow should strengthen its connections with Abkhazia and Ossetia, which are the two Georgian regions that Moscow has declared independent since its 2008 war with Georgia, as well as the two breakaway units in eastern Ukraine, which are the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic.
