The 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 the attainment or preservation of great power status. Political ideas that developed since the Tsarist period put forward assumptions about national identity, the role of the Russian state in the world and geopolitics, and shaped Russian foreign policy. Russia lost its great power status after the collapse of the USSR. However, under Putin’s leadership, Russia has pursued a foreign policy aimed at reclaiming this status. In this period ideas influenced the decisions of Putin’s and Russia’s foreign policy. In light of all these statements, this book examines the political ideas that affect the preferences of Russian decisionmakers and the practices that emerged in Russian foreign policy implemented during the Putin period to achieve Russia’s great power status.

Metin Aksoy is Professor of International Relations at Selçuk University in Türkiye. He obtained his master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Vienna. His research interests encompass Türkiye-EU relations, Russian foreign policy, German foreign policy, geopolitics, and security studies.