Note: I’m on quasi-vacation for the rest of the month. This series will consist mostly of excerpts from published articles.
Except as noted, the following excerpts are from The Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, dated March 31, 2023.
The Russian Federation intends to give priority to… promoting the development of international relations between religious organizations belonging to Russia's traditional religions, and protecting the Russian Orthodox Church from discrimination abroad, including in the interests of ensuring the unity of Orthodoxy.
With the purpose of countering the falsification of history, incitement of hatred against Russia, spread of the ideology of neo-Nazism, racial and national exclusivity, and aggressive nationalism, and strengthening the moral, legal and institutional foundations of contemporary international relations based primarily on the universally recognized outcomes of World War II, the Russian Federation intends to give priority to:
disseminating accurate information abroad about the role and place of Russia in world history and the formation of a just world order, including the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union to the victory over Nazi Germany and to the founding of the UN.
taking response measures against foreign states and their associations, foreign officials, organizations and citizens involved in committing unfriendly acts against Russian sites of historical and memorial significance located abroad.
[Regarding Russia’s use of historical sites: “The Pomors, a small seafaring group that originated in Russia but whose members have spent much of the past millennium hunting and fishing in what is now northern Norway, left traces of Orthodox crosses wherever they had been. In the past decade, representatives of the [Russian] Orthodox Church have systematically restored old Pomor crosses and erected new ones. The area coincides with the exact territory that would be most strategically useful to Russia’s nuclear defense. [A Norwegian official] told me, “Now that they have the crosses, and a Russian Orthodox priest has been there, sprinkling his holy water, the narrative back home is that these are Russian holy lands. This also means that they can be defended militarily.” - Russia’s Espionage War in the Arctic by Ben Taub/The New Yorker, September 9, 2024]
Countering the campaign of Russophobia unleashed by unfriendly states, the Russian Federation intends to give priority to…
taking enforcement actions and special economic measures against foreign states and their associations, foreign officials, organizations and citizens involved in committing unfriendly acts against Russian citizens and organizations and in violating the fundamental rights and freedoms of compatriots living abroad.
promoting the consolidation of compatriots living abroad who have a constructive attitude towards Russia and supporting them in protecting their rights and legitimate interests in their states of residence, primarily in hostile states, in preserving their all-Russian cultural and linguistic identity, Russian spiritual and moral values, and their ties with their historic Motherland.
[Regarding Russia’s duty to protect "“compatriots living abroad: “Living in a country that had long been a multinational empire, it was difficult for many Russians to accept that many of their ethnic brethren now lived in foreign countries. As a result, under Putin, the Kremlin began to assert a broader conceptualization of “Russianness” that extends beyond internationally defined territories and borders. Redefining what it means to be Russian provides a way for the Russian state to project power and assert its influence in the internal affairs of its neighbors. Thus, the Kremlin enacted a series of laws, programs and policies designed to address the status of ethnic Russians abroad, some of which provided the Kremlin with a convenient pretext for alleging discrimination… Russia found greater justification for its military intervention by portraying ethnic Russians in post-Soviet countries as vulnerable groups needing protection from hostile governments.” - How the Kremlin Distorts the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ Principle by Heather Ashby, April 7, 2022.]
The Russian Federation intends to give priority to…
preventing and resolving armed conflicts, improving inter-state relations, and ensuring stability in the near abroad, including preventing the instigation of "colour revolutions" and other attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia's allies and partners.
[“The colour revolutions were a series of often non-violent protests and accompanying (attempted or successful) changes of government and society that took place in post-Soviet states (particularly Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan) and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the early 21st century. The aim of the colour revolutions was to establish Western-style liberal democracies. They were primarily triggered by election results widely viewed as falsified.” - Wikipedia].
establishing an integrated economic and political space in Eurasia in the long term.
[According to the ideology of Russian Euroasianism that emerged in the 1990s “conflicts result not from economic and social struggles, but from a clash between the cultural essences of peoples… religion is the foundation of civilizations and provides them with an unchangeable nature, and civilizations, rather than individuals or social groups, are the true driving force of history…Russian Euroasianism has aided in the elaboration of a pseudo-scientific speak which avoids politics and justifies authoritarianism through culture”…This essentialist interpretation of the world serves an undisguised political objective: to show that the Western model is not applicable to the post-Soviet countries because civilizations cannot adopt anything from the outside.” - Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire by Sarah Dixon Klump/Wilson Center, quoting and paraphrasing Marlene Laruelle, author of Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire.]
Most European states pursue an aggressive policy toward Russia aimed at creating threats to the security and sovereignty of the Russian Federation, gaining unilateral economic advantages, undermining domestic political stability and eroding traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, and creating obstacles to Russia's cooperation with allies and partners. In this connection, the Russian Federation intends to consistently defend its national interests by giving priority attention to:
reducing and neutralizing threats to security, territorial integrity, sovereignty, traditional spiritual and moral values, and socio-economic development of Russia, its allies and partners from unfriendly European states, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union and the Council of Europe.
creating conditions for the cessation of unfriendly actions by European states and their associations, for a complete rejection of the anti Russian course (including interference in Russia's internal affairs) by these states and their associations.
The realization by the states of Europe that there is no alternative to peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial equal cooperation with Russia, an increase in the level of their foreign policy independence [from the U.S.] and a transition to a policy of good neighbourliness with the Russian Federation will have a positive effect on the security and welfare of the European region and help European states take their proper place in the Greater Eurasian Partnership and in a multipolar world.
[The U.S. is] main inspirer, organizer and executor of the aggressive anti-Russian policy of the collective West, the source of major risks to the security of the Russian Federation.
The Russian Federation is interested in maintaining strategic parity, peaceful coexistence with the United States, and the establishment of a balance of interests between Russia and the United States…prospects of forming such a model of U.S.-Russian relations depend on the extent to which the United States is ready to abandon its policy of power-domination and revise its anti-Russian course in favour of interaction with Russia on the basis of the principles of sovereign equality, mutual benefit, and respect for each other's interests.