Russian foreign policy is at the fore front of the current geopolitical landscape following Russia’s invasion into the sovereign territory of Ukraine in 2022. The return of Vladimir Putin as Russian president in 2012 saw the renewed attention in official foreign policy discourses. Many political commentators have claimed that at the start of Putin’s third term, this marked a shift in Russian foreign policy discourse away from the ‘pragmatism’ that typified his first two terms. Yet others have attributed the Ukriane crisis to a gradual evolution of Russia’s foreign policy, one where Russia is looking to recapture elements of its ‘Great power status’ and renew its ‘sphere of influence’. This dissertation will use the three chosen Foreign Policy Concepts of the Russian Federation and assess whether these documents can reflect this ‘sharp turn’ in foreign policy discourse. Or whether across the three Foreign Policy Concepts, we see a continuation of how Russia wants to present its role in the world and how it interacts with different regions. This will be explored through the lens of three different areas of the world: Russia’s ‘near abroad’, the West and the non-Western World.
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