Russia - Foreign Relations

It is no secret that after the collapse of colonial empires, all metropolises had an inevitable nostalgia for lost greatness - the so-called post-imperial syndrome. Modern Russia, the main successor to the Soviet superpower, is nostalgic for its former greatness and lost influence. Russia is now experiencing a deferred post-imperial syndrome, despite its small share in the world economy, and still has a strong expansionist charge and an undisclosed ambition of global geopolitical influence.

"Trying to rally around itself on an anti-Western platform the former colonial and oppressed peoples of the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, involving them in the struggle against the countries of the "golden billion" that has been "pushing its world domination" "and dominating the world for decades, Russia today claims to be the leader of the 'global majority'."

Valery N. Garbuzov Russia needs knowledge, not myths

"By illegally annexing Crimea, waging an undeclared war in eastern Ukraine, and occupying large swaths of Georgia’s and Moldova’s territory, Putin’s Russia has torn up the international rule book and firmly established itself as a revisionist power, undermining the basis for cooperation on European security.... Putin defines Russia’s interests in opposition to the West and isn’t interested in compromising on the issues of concern to us. His hostility is driven, first and foremost, by domestic politics. Moscow fears the encroachment of Western ideas and values and their potential to contaminate Russia itself and ultimately undermine the regime."

Trump’s ‘grand bargain’ with Russia is an illusion By Alexander Vershbow - 21 June 2018

"Russia continues to be accused of meddling in the U.S. elections and a host of other Western countries. Moscow has annexed Crimea from Ukraine, pushed into the Middle East and seemingly pushed the U.S. out of Syria. Its mercenaries have been spotted as far out as Venezuela, and it is moving into Africa. Why, then, are we suddenly seeing three conflicts - in Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Nagorno-Karabakh - raging on its periphery, with Russia seemingly doing little to resolve them? ... Since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and interfered militarily in Ukraine to prop up the pro-Russian separatist states of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Moscow has come to be regarded as aggressively imposing itself on the world. Its foreign policy escapades since then - the 2016 interference in U.S. elections, its military backing of Syria's Bashar Assad, its unsuccessful coup attempt in Montenegro in 2016, and its support of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela - all fall within that narrative. ... Putin's foreign policy has been about "ticking boxes," of having various agencies, both public and private, establish a presence in foreign countries either to disrupt or influence, but without a coherent strategy for an actual end...." according to Anna Arutunyan