Russia’s relations with the world of Islam mean a time-tested, trust-based cooperation, with the Islamic dimension always present in the national foreign policy
The year of 2023 may well have been a year of further consolidation of Russia’s pivot to the East, especially in the Middle East and across the South, as well as to the Islamic world. Amid the pressure of Western sanctions, Moscow managed not only to retain its positions in the Islamic world but also to boost its bilateral ties with Muslim...
The main result of 2023 has been the transition to a new normal in foreign and domestic policy in Russia
The main result of 2023 has been the transition to a new normal in foreign and domestic policy. In comparison, 2021 was a year of gathering clouds. At the time, an impending rupture was in the air, but to many it seemed unlikely. The reality of the thirty years since the end of the Cold War—the reality of peaceful life, openness and cooperation—had become too familiar. In relations with the...
The choice of St. Petersburg to host last weeks Russia-Africa summit was no accident. It was a symbolic move
Last week’s Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg was a landmark event in Moscow’s foreign policy concept and practice. Not so much because it brought scores of African leaders and senior officials to the country. The first summit, four years ago in Sochi, featured even more African heads of state. Also, it is not solely because its agenda expanded beyond economics and included a humanitarian...
On June 16, 2023, Russian International Affairs Council hosted a workshop on the implementation of the section “Law and International Relations” of the Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, dedicated to the discussion of the international and legal aspects of the new Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation
On June 16, 2023, Russian International Affairs Council hosted a workshop on the implementation of the section “Law and International Relations” of the Concept...
The world’s power center’s journey, a half millennium later, will have come full circle. Russia is not a bystander, but part of the action, pushing for change
The war in Ukraine, which to most Russians—and not just the Kremlin—is a direct, if not yet a kinetic military conflict with the American-led West, has been reshaping Russia massively from within. The economy, faced with the most severe sanctions so far imposed on any country, is not only seeking ways to go around the sanctions or substitute...
In Africa, Moscow is moving from “flexible geometry” toward agile and parallel dialogue structures, which entails nuanced and subtle work
Since the early days of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the diplomacy of the Сollective West has been striving to isolate Moscow, punishing it for resolving the conflict in Donbass. However, one cannot talk about isolation without accounting for the position of developing countries: Alongside the golden billion, there are another 7 billion people...
RIAC, Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Institute of International Studies at Fudan University Report #78 / 2022
RIAC, Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Institute of International Studies at Fudan University Report #78 / 2022
The eighth annual report by the Russian International Affairs Council, the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of International Studies at Fudan...
In 2022, Russia is turning a longue-durée of more than 200 years of American expansion
Russian Debate
Russia has a strong intellectual tradition, and the current debate in Russia is very much alive. What is Russia? What is the future of Russia? I find the discussions in Russia encouraging. I juxtapose Russian discussions with those in the U.S., and I find Russian discussions more interesting, more open. Most U.S. discussions about the U.S. and the world are sterile and infertile—an automated echo...
Interview for Going Underground / RT
Interview for Going Underground / RT
We speak to Director-General of the Russian International Affairs Council Andrey Kortunov. He discusses why Vladimir Putin is unlikely to invade Ukraine and how Putin would have conducted the invasion if he were to go through with it, whether the current crisis shows a failure in Russian diplomacy, alleged plans for a Russian puppet government to be installed in Kiev, contentions over the Minsk agreements between Kiev and...
In 2008, four paths were available to Russia but in 2022, one prevails
A Retrospective Introduction
In 2008–2012 we published results of a long-term research project on the alternative scenarios of Russia’s future in several publications including ‘
On Russia: Perspectives from the Engelsberg Seminar 2008
’ from the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation. The project purported to make two major steps: first, to generate scenarios themselves and second, to test the public perceptions of these...
