Hysterical Machiavellianism: Russian Foreign Policy and the International Non-Relation

The article is devoted to the 2014–2016 turn in the Russian politics and seeks to explain the way in which the Russian leadership fights against the new Ukrainian authorities and the «West». The conduct of Russia, with its mixture of mimicry and provocation, may be described, as hysterical. Hysteria is a syndrome of repressed aggression and normative love that is expressed in rhetorically charged action. As such, it is an efficient military strategy aiming at the recognition from other states and international organizations. This situation is significant also because it represents a capture of the paradigm of spontaneous popular revolution.