Kremlin leader publishes 31-page guidelines for foreign policy
Putin’s New “Russian World”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued new guidelines on foreign policy. This article provides an in-depth look at how the Kremlin leader envisions Russia’s future.
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Vladimir Putin, on Monday, imagined Russia to be bigger than it is today.
President Vladimir Putin (69) on Monday endorsed a new foreign policy doctrine based on the concept of a “Russian world”. The 31-page document states that Russia must “preserve, protect and promote the traditions and ideals of the Russian world”.
Six months after the start of the war in Ukraine, this doctrine was published and formally adopted by Putin. Conservative circles sometimes use the concept of a “Russian world” to justify military action abroad.
Ukraine war justified?
The comments are presented in a column of guidance on official Russian politics that some hardliners use to justify occupying parts of Ukraine and supporting pro-Russian breakaway regions in the east of the country.
It says: “The Russian Federation supports its compatriots living abroad in the exercise of their rights, the protection of their interests and the preservation of their Russian cultural identity.”
Putin has repeatedly pointed to the roughly 25 million Russians who have lived in independent states that have sprung up since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
According to the guidelines, Russia’s relations with its compatriots abroad allow it to “strengthen its image on the international stage as a democratic country that strives to create a multipolar world.”
“Deep” ties with Donetsk and Luhansk
The new political direction also calls for Russia to expand cooperation with Slavic countries, China and India. They want to strengthen ties with the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.
Likewise, Russia should “deepen its ties” with Abkhazia and Ossetia, two Georgian regions recognized as independent by Moscow after the 2008 war against Georgia.
The same applies to relations between the two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. (eu)
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