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The Washington Quarterly 24.3 (2001) 7-13



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The New Russian Identity

Igor Ivanov


Balancing the current democratic character of its state and society with its history, Russia has vigorously debated its new identity and foreign policy over the past decade. Democratic Russia entered the world arena with an image radically different from previous forms of the Russian state. Neither its current political system nor its outer frontiers and immediate geopolitical surroundings have precedent in Russian history. By all indications, the Russian Federation is a new state functioning in a radically changing system of international relations.

Under such circumstances, our diplomacy could not return to the pre-revolutionary model of the early twentieth century or mechanically continue with Soviet foreign policy. The Russian Federation resolutely has broken with the ideological legacy of the Soviet Union while proclaiming its legal status as the successor state to the USSR. The Russian leadership, therefore, has had to reformulate its key foreign policy objectives, given its new system of values and international position.

Present-day Russian foreign policy doctrine took much time and several stages to develop. Now, this process has been generally completed. The debate resulted in the new Foreign Policy Concept of Russia approved by President Vladimir Putin in June 2000.

The substance of the document reflected the truth that, no matter how deep internal changes may be, the foreign policy of any state cannot begin with a clean slate, but bears the imprint of continuity determined by the country's geopolitics, history, and culture. This truth is especially applicable to Russia, a country that has been one of the key actors on the European and world scene for centuries. [End Page 7]

In the recent past, the West assessed Russia's foreign policy in light of Russian history. For example, Western analysts, including the patriarch of Sovietology, George Kennan, regarded Stalin's course in international affairs as a continuation of Russian czarist policy rather than of the Communist International. Such a perception created a fairly one-sided impression of Russian and Soviet foreign policy, highlighting what the West regarded as its most negative aspects. Consequently, the issue of continuity in Russian diplomacy appears to be quite relevant both for Russia and for its partners in Europe and elsewhere. The key questions are, How do novelty and continuity interact in the foreign policy of contemporary Russia? To what extent does its present understanding of national interests correspond to historical traditions, and to what extent does it completely diverge? What historical heritage has Russian diplomacy brought into the twenty-first century?

Ideology or National Interests?

One of the fundamental conclusions drawn from these debates in Russia is that the country's foreign policy should be based on national interests rather than political ideology. This approach, about which there exists a wide consensus in Russian society, is deeply rooted in history. According to a popular expression by the great national poet of Russia, Alexander Pushkin, Peter the Great "cut a window to Europe." Since that era, Russian diplomacy has always succeeded when guided by realistic, pragmatic considerations and failed when dominated by imperial ideology and messianic ambitions.

The reign of Emperor Nicholas I, inspired by the ideas of the Holy Alliance and the ultraconservative ideology of European absolutism, was a particularly weighty lesson for Russia. As an ultimate result of his ideology, Russia faced the danger of turning into a second-rate European power after its defeat in the Crimean War in 1856. At that very moment, Russian foreign policy conceptually reversed course, leaving a deep imprint on Moscow's mentality. One-and-a-half centuries later, this same concept has proven to be surprisingly relevant to Russia today. This change was inspired by the outstanding Russian diplomat, Chancellor Alexander Gorchakov, who first introduced the notion of Russia's national interests into the foreign policy debates.

Gorchakov's main objective was to create the best possible external conditions for the liberal domestic reforms initiated by Emperor Alexander II. His memorandum to the czar pointed out that

No matter in what area we undertake to make our...

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