President Vladimir Putin on Monday endorsed a new foreign policy doctrine based on the concept of a “Russian World,” a notion that conservative ideologues have used to justify intervention abroad in support of Russian speakers. The 31-page “humanitarian policy”, published more than six months after the war in Ukraine, says Russia must “protect, protect and promote the traditions and ideals of the Russian world”. While it is presented as a kind of soft power strategy, it incorporates into the official political ideas around Russian politics and religion that some hard-liners have used to justify Moscow’s occupation of parts of Ukraine and support for breakaway pro-Russian entities in the east of the country. “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,” the policy states. He said that Russia’s ties with its compatriots abroad allowed it to “reinforce on the international stage its image as a democratic country striving to create a multipolar world.” Putin has for years highlighted what he sees as the tragic fate of some 25 million Russians who found themselves living outside Russia in newly independent states when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, an event he has called a geopolitical catastrophe. Russia has continued to regard the former Soviet space, from the Baltics to Central Asia, as its legitimate sphere of influence – an idea strongly resisted by many of those countries as well as the West. The new policy says Russia should increase cooperation with Slavic nations, China and India and further strengthen its ties with the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. He said Moscow should further deepen its ties with Abkhazia and Ossetia, two Georgian regions recognized as independent by Moscow after the 2008 war against Georgia, as well as with the two breakaway entities in eastern Ukraine, self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk. Democratic Republic. Our Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
