Putin’s Viennese waltz

Russia’s foreign policy aims to restore a global Concert of Nations, writes Fyodor Lukyanov

The World Today
4 minute READ

Russia’s foreign policy under Vladimir Putin has met with contradictory reactions around the world. To some, it is a failure that is leading Russia to a dead end; to others, it is a notably successful and effective project.

Russia is allegedly an economically backward and demographically declining power, its role on the global stage is small and its prospects are bleak. But its military-political significance has increased to the extent that the Russian factor is almost equivalent to the Soviet threat in the past. Russia has no idea or vision of the future, but its influence on people’s minds and the information space is assuming dangerous proportions.

Putin is a bad strategist who does not understand the modern world and yet he is the only one who has a strategy to pursue in the Middle East, Europe and the post-Soviet space. Finally, Putin is recreating the Soviet Union, restoring the Russian Empire and destroying the West and western democracy.

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