From The Honeymoon Of Yeltsin To Putin's Policy Shift.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia's security culture concentrated mostly on domestic dangers coming from economic deterioration and sociological difficulties (Military Doctrine 1993; National Security Concept 1997). 

External security threats to Russia were to be tackled in cooperation with the West. 

Russia seemed to be prepared to cooperate with, if not join, the West. 

However, Europe and the US largely disregarded Russia's interests and concerns (Cohen 2001; Kennan, quoted in Friedman 1998), expanding their engagement in what had previously been the Soviet sphere of dominance and attempting to restrict Moscow's capacity to re-establish its major position in the area. 

At the same time, political events in Russia drew increasing condemnation from both Brussels and Washington. 

In order to prevent the Communists from regaining power, the US was heavily engaged in assuring President Boris Yeltsin's re-election in 1996. (Goldgeier and McFaul 2003). 

Although, particularly after Putin took power, Russian views and practices toward the West evolved. 

The Bush administration's unilateral decision to invade Iraq in 2003, as well as other Western initiatives, such as NATO and EU expansion eastward; the US decision to deploy an antimissile system in Poland and the Czech Republic; the EU's commitment to a new neighborhood policy; and Western support for the "color revolutions" that challenged, if not deposed, Moscow's allies in Kyiv, Tb, contributed to this shift in strategic culture. 

Official Russian responses to what they perceived as mounting threats to their fundamental national security interests included a change in national identity and self-image that questioned Russia's European origins and linked it to a larger Eurasia. 

As Russia pursued its objective of re-establishing itself as the main regional force throughout Eurasia and as a vital global player, it was joined by a rising challenge to the West's dominating position, both in Central and Eastern Europe and worldwide. 

To put it another way, the evolving Russian attitude to the West, which has had such an influence on ties, has old origins in Soviet perceptions of the capitalist West, and more recent foundations in Western actions in former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. 

As previously stated, Russian resistance grew in response to the United States' decision to act militarily in Iraq as part of the "war on terror." Moscow, as well as a number of US allies, were vehemently opposed to the intervention, which laid the ground for a worsening of Russian–US ties (Ambrosio 2005). 

Other events, such as the EU's new neighborhood policy, exacerbated the worsening trend in Russia–Western ties. 

Although Russian authorities have been vocal in their opposition to NATO's eastward expansion throughout the 1990s, they were not originally hostile to post-communist nations entering the European Union. 

By the early 2000s, however, Russia had realized that EU membership for post-communist states would not only reduce Russian export markets, but would also be part of a much broader Western economic-political-social strategy to integrate East European states and societies into the Western world order, undermining Moscow's long-term interests in a region associated with Russian identity and status. 

The European Neighborhood Policy, announced in 2004, aimed at tying six former Soviet republics closer to the EU without granting them full membership, as well as visible support for political upheavals in several post-Soviet states known as color revolutions, are key factors in explaining the evolving tensions in Russia–EU relations. 

These were just veiled attempts by Western governments and NGOs to alter these nations' political orientation toward deeper links with the West, as seen from Moscow. 

"We saw what disastrous repercussions the wave of so-called color revolutions has led to," Putin said recently. 

This is both a lesson and a warning for us. 

We must do everything possible to ensure that nothing comparable occurs in Russia" (Putin, cited in Korsunskaya 2014). 

In the views of the Putin regime, this phrase also illustrates the intimate relationship between internal and foreign security. 

In summary, by about 2005, Moscow's leadership saw post-communist nations' continuous integration into Western political, economic, and security institutions as a long-term danger to Russia's determination to re-establish its leading position in Eurasia, as well as the Putin government's stay on power. 

Putin started openly claiming that the fall of the Soviet Union was the most devastating geopolitical event of the twentieth century, and he began arguing that NATO and the United States were severe dangers to Russia and world security in general about this time.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read and learn more about Global Geo Politics, Conflicts, And Conflict Resolution here.

Find Jai on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

References 

Abramov, Roman and A. A. Chistiakova (2012). “Nostal'nicheskie Reprezentatsii Pozdnego Sovetskogo Periodav Media Proektakh L.Parfenova: Povolnam KollektivnoIpamiati.” Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal issledovanii kul'tury, 1, pp. 52–58. http://culturalresearch.ru/files/open_issues/01_2012/IJCR_01(6)_2012_abram_chist.pdf. 

Adomeit, Hannes (1995). “Russia as a ‘Great Power’ in World Affairs: Images and Reality.” International Affairs 71, no. 1, pp. 35–68. 

Akchurina, Viktoria, and Vincent Della Sala (2018). “Russia, Europe and the Ontological Security Dilemma: Narrating the Emerging Eurasian Space,” Europe￾Asia Studies, 70, no. 10, pp. 1638–1655. Published online: December 24, 2018. 

Aksakov, Konstantin (1966). “On the Internal State of Russia,” in M. Raeff, ed., Russian Intellectual History: An Anthology. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, pp. 231–251. 

Billington, James H. (2004). Russia in Search of Itself. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. 

Boym. Svetlana (1995). “From the Russian Soul to Post-Communist Nostalgia.” Representations, 49, pp. 133–166. DOI: 10.2307/2928753. 

Burton, Robert A. (2009). On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. New York: Macmillan. 

Cherniavsky, Michael (1959). “Khan or Basileus: An Aspect of Russian Mediaeval Political Theory.” Journal of the History of Ideas 20, no. 4, pp. 459–476. 

Danilevskii, Nikolai (1869). “ Rossiia i Evropa”, Zaria, pp. 1–10. 

David-Fox, Michael (2015). Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 

Della Sala, Vincent and Viktoria Akchurina (2019). “Love and Fear in the Neighbourhood: Emotions and Ontological Security in Foreign Policy Analysis.” APSA Preprints. Working Paper. doi: 10.33774/apsa-2019-dzv4j. 

Forsberg, Tuomas (2014). “Status Conflicts Between Russia and the West: Perceptions and Emotional Biases.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47, no. 3, pp. 323–331. 

Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 

Gorbachev, Oleg (2015). “The Namedni Project and the Evolution of Nostalgia in post-Soviet Russia.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 57, no. 3-4, pp. 180–194. 30 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Gumilëv, Lev (1990). Nikolaevič. Ėtnogenez i biosfera Zemli. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. 

Grimes, William (2018). “Richard Pipes, Historian of Russia and Reagan Aide, Dies at 94.” The New York Times, May 17, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/obituaries/richard-pipes-historian-of-russia-and-reagan-aide-dies-at-94.html. 

Hankiss, Agnes (1981). “Ontologies of the Self: On the Mythological Rearranging of One’s Life History,” in D. Bertaux, ed., Biography and Society. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 

Hansen, Flemming Splidsboel (2016). “Russia’s Relations with the West: Ontological Security Through Conflict.” Contemporary Politics, 22, no. 3, pp. 359–375. 

Hopf, Ted (2002). Social Construction of International Politics: Identities & Foreign Policies, Moscow, 1955 and 1999. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

Hosking, Geoffrey (1995). “The Freudian Frontier.” Times literary supplement, TLS 4797, p. 27. 

Kanet, Roger E. ed. (2007). Russia: Re-emerging Great Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Kanet, Roger E. (2019). “Russian Strategic Culture, Domestic Politics and Cold War 2.0.” European Politics and Society, 20, no. 2, pp. 190–206. 

Kanet, Roger E. and Susanne M. Birgerson (1997). “The Domestic-Foreign Policy Linkage in Russian Politics: Nationalist Influences on Russian Foreign Policy.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 30, no. 4, pp. 35–44. 

Kliuchevskii, V. O. (1937). Kurs russkoi istorii, 5 vols. Moscow: Gos. Sots. Ekon. Izdatel’stvo. 

Kotkin, Stephen (2016). “Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics: Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern.” Foreign Affairs, 95, p. 2. 

Kononenko, Vadim (2011). “Introduction,” in Vadim Kononenko and Arkady Moshes, eds. Russia as a Network State. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, p. 6. Kozyrev, Andrei (1994). “The Lagging Partnership.” Foreign Affairs, 73, no. 3, pp. 59–71. 

Krashennikova, Veronica (2007). America - Russia: Cold War of Cultures: How American Values Refract Vision of Russia. Moscow: Ltd. Labirintru. 

LeDoux, Joseph E. (2003). Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. London: Penguin. 

Leichtova, Magda (2014). Misunderstanding Russia: Russian Foreign Policy and the West. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 

Levada Center (2015). “Russian Participation in the Syrian Military Conflict,” June 16. http://www.levada.ru/en/2015/11/06/russian-participation-in-the-syrian-military-conflict/print/. 

Levada Center (2014). “68% of Russian Citizens Consider Russia a Superpower. In Levada-Center, December 23. http://www.levada.ru/eng/68-russian-citizens-consider-russia-superpower. 

Levada Center (2020). “Levada Center: 25 Percent of Russians Favor Constitutional Changes; 65 Percent Don’t Understand Them,” Open Media, February 28. https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/02/28/levada-center-25-percent-of-russians-favor-constitutional-changes-65-percent-don-t-understand-them. 

Lipman, Maria (2016). “How Putin Silences Dissent: Inside the Kremlin’s Crackdown.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 38–46. Russia’s self-image 31 

Mankoff, Jeffrey (2009). Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 

Mitzen, Jennifer (2006). “Anchoring Europe’s Civilizing Identity: Habits, Capabilities and Ontological Security 1.” Journal of European Public Policy, 13, no. 2, pp. 270–285. 

Moulioukova, Dina, with Roger E. Kanet (2020). “Assertive Foreign Policy Despite Diminished Capabilities: Russian Involvement in Syria.” Global Affairs, 6, no. 3, pp. 247–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2020.1842787. 

Moulioukova, Dina with Roger E. Kanet (2022). “The Battle of Ontological Narratives: Russia and the Annexation of Crimea,” chapter 5 of this volume. 

Neumann, Iver B. (2008). “Russia as a Great Power, 1815–2007.” Journal of International Relations and Development, 11, no. 2, pp. 128–151. 

The Other Day 1961–2003. “Namedni 1961–2003: Nasha Era” (The other day 1961–2003: our Era). TV Series, 1997–2003. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0764146/. 

Oushakine, Serguei Alex (2007). “We’re Nostalgic but We’re Not Crazy”: Retrofitting the Past in Russia.” The Russian Review, 66, no. 3, pp. 451–482. 

Patterson, Molly and Kristen Renwick Monroe (1998). “Narrative in Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science, 1, pp. 315–331. https://doi.org/10.114 6/annurev.polisci.1.1.315. 

Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will Outlast the Master.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 10–17. 

Pipes, Richard (1996). “Russia’s Past, Russia’s Future.” Commentary, 101, no. 6, pp. 30. 

Pipes, Richard (1974). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

Pipes. Richard (1995). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Penguin Books, 2nd edn. 

Primakov, Andrei (1996). “Primakov Wants ‘Great’ Russia, but Calms West.” Reuters, January 12, 1996. 

Prizel, Ilya (1998). National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Putin, Vladimir (2005). “Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.” April 25. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/22931. 

Putin, Vladimir (2003). “Poslanie federal’nomu sobraniu Rossiiskoi federatsii,” May 16. http://pravdaoputine.ru/official-putin/putin-poslanie-federalnomu-sobraniyu-rossiyskoy-federatsii-2003-text-audio. 

Raeff, Marc (1971). “Patterns of Russian Imperial Policy Toward the Nationalities,” in Edward, Allworth, ed., Soviet Nationality Problems. New York: Columbia Press, pp. 22–42. 

Razyvayev, V. (1992). “Forecast: Sticks and Carrots – Controversial Reflections on Russian Foreign Policy. Nezavisimaya gazeta, in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, March 5, 44, no. 10, pp. 15. 

Roe, Paul (2000). “Former Yugoslavia: The Security Dilemma that Never Was?” European Journal of International Relations, 6, no. 3, pp. 373–393. 

Rossdale, Chris (2015). “Enclosing Critique: The Limits of Ontological Security.” International Political Sociology, 9, no. 4, pp. 369–386. 

Sakwa, Richard (2015). “The Death of Europe? Continental Fates after Ukraine. International Affairs, 91, no. 3, pp. 553–579. 32 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Savitskii, Petr N. (2003). “Evraziistvo.” (Eurasianism) in K. Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will OutlastKorolev, ed., Klassika Geopolitiki. XX vek (Classical Works of Geopolitics. 20th Century). Moscow: AST. Vol. 2, pp. 653–699. 

Sergeevich, Vasilii I. (1909) Drevnosti Russkogo Prava, .(St. Petersburg), 3d ed., 145. 

Steele Brent, J. (2008). Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-Identity and the IR State. Abingdon-New York: Routledge. 

Stent, Angela (2007). “Reluctant Europeans: Three Centuries of Russian Ambivalence Toward the West", in R. Legvold, ed., Russian Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century and the Shadow of the Past. New York: Columbia University Press. 

Subotić, Jelena (October 2016). “Narrative, Ontological Security, and Foreign Policy Change.” Foreign Policy Analysis, 12, no. 4, pp. 610–627. 

Surkov, Vladislav (2006). “Suverenitet—Eto Politicheskii Sinonim Konkurentosp￾osobnosti.” (Sovereignty–Is the Political Synonym for Competitiveness). Moscow: Edinaya Rossiya, p. 22. 

Thorun, Christian (2009). Explaining Change in Russian Foreign Policy: The Role of  Ideas in Post-Soviet Russia’s Conduct Towards the West. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Trenin, Dmitriĭ (2002). The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington: Carnegie Endowment. 

Trenin, Dmitri (2006). “Russia Leaves the West.” Foreign Affairs, 85, no. 4, pp. 87–96. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2012). Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin: Honor in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2014). The Strong State in Russia: Development and Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2016). Russia’s Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Tuminez, Astrid S. (2000). Russian Nationalism since 1856: Ideology and the Making of Foreign Policy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Vernadsky, George (1963). The Mongols and Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 

Vujačić, Veljko (2015). Nationalism, Myth, and the State in Russia and Serbia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Weber, Max, A. M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons (1947). The Theory of Economic and Social Organization. New York: Oxford University Press. 

“Westernizers” (2013). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia®. Retrieved April 18, 2020 from https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Westernizers. 

Russian Foreign Policy And Strategic Culture.

 

During the Soviet period, in the West, a school of policy analysts highlighted the necessity of a "operational code" or "strategic culture" (Leites 1951; Snyder 1977). 

More recently, constructivist-inspired researchers have revived "strategic culture" as an essential topic, focusing on the fundamental point that strategic culture is a "negotiated reality" among a country's political elites (Lantis 2009). 

This implies that strategic cultures do not remain static throughout time, but rather develop as political leaders assess changes in threats from both the internal and external contexts (Lantis and Howlett 2013, 81). 

Stephen Blank wrote about numerous key factors in understanding Russian strategic culture during the early Yeltsin years. 

To begin with, he described the never-ending political and military struggle he dubbed "class struggle" – that is, the underpinnings of a new strategic culture that emphasized constant conflict with and threats from the outside world; this culture persisted in the Soviet state even after Stalin's death (Blank 1993, 8). 

Although adjustments were made in the closing decades of Soviet leadership, Blank was justified in questioning their long-term impact (Blank 1993, 46). 

In reality, he brought up the key topic of atavisms in Russian strategic culture, which refers to the fact that certain members of the Russian decision-making elite still adhere to older types of strategic culture. 

Similarly, according to Russian scholar Pavel Felgenhauer (2018), the military elite and other members of the security apparatus, the siloviki, who have dominated Russian security policymaking under Putin, bring attitudes and ideals from the Soviet Union to the process. 

According to Mette Skak, Russia's secret services and related "power agencies" are de facto independent players inside the Russian Federation, creating a counterinsurgency state. 

"Why?" is an obvious question (Skak 2019). 

The central argument of this chapter is that, over the course of the Russian Federation's 30-year history, the strategic culture that underpins the official Russian worldview has returned to its Russian/ Soviet roots and has become increasingly hostile to the outside world, particularly that characterized by liberal political systems. 

As a result of this more antagonistic outlook, the policies that emerge have grown more forceful and confrontational. 

This move, in turn, is partly a reaction to Western activities and partly a product of Russia's own political processes.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read and learn more about Global Geo Politics, Conflicts, And Conflict Resolution here.

Find Jai on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

References 

Abramov, Roman and A. A. Chistiakova (2012). “Nostal'nicheskie Reprezentatsii Pozdnego Sovetskogo Periodav Media Proektakh L.Parfenova: Povolnam KollektivnoIpamiati.” Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal issledovanii kul'tury, 1, pp. 52–58. http://culturalresearch.ru/files/open_issues/01_2012/IJCR_01(6)_2012_abram_chist.pdf. 

Adomeit, Hannes (1995). “Russia as a ‘Great Power’ in World Affairs: Images and Reality.” International Affairs 71, no. 1, pp. 35–68. 

Akchurina, Viktoria, and Vincent Della Sala (2018). “Russia, Europe and the Ontological Security Dilemma: Narrating the Emerging Eurasian Space,” Europe￾Asia Studies, 70, no. 10, pp. 1638–1655. Published online: December 24, 2018. 

Aksakov, Konstantin (1966). “On the Internal State of Russia,” in M. Raeff, ed., Russian Intellectual History: An Anthology. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, pp. 231–251. 

Billington, James H. (2004). Russia in Search of Itself. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. 

Boym. Svetlana (1995). “From the Russian Soul to Post-Communist Nostalgia.” Representations, 49, pp. 133–166. DOI: 10.2307/2928753. 

Burton, Robert A. (2009). On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. New York: Macmillan. 

Cherniavsky, Michael (1959). “Khan or Basileus: An Aspect of Russian Mediaeval Political Theory.” Journal of the History of Ideas 20, no. 4, pp. 459–476. 

Danilevskii, Nikolai (1869). “ Rossiia i Evropa”, Zaria, pp. 1–10. 

David-Fox, Michael (2015). Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 

Della Sala, Vincent and Viktoria Akchurina (2019). “Love and Fear in the Neighbourhood: Emotions and Ontological Security in Foreign Policy Analysis.” APSA Preprints. Working Paper. doi: 10.33774/apsa-2019-dzv4j. 

Forsberg, Tuomas (2014). “Status Conflicts Between Russia and the West: Perceptions and Emotional Biases.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47, no. 3, pp. 323–331. 

Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 

Gorbachev, Oleg (2015). “The Namedni Project and the Evolution of Nostalgia in post-Soviet Russia.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 57, no. 3-4, pp. 180–194. 30 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Gumilëv, Lev (1990). Nikolaevič. Ėtnogenez i biosfera Zemli. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. 

Grimes, William (2018). “Richard Pipes, Historian of Russia and Reagan Aide, Dies at 94.” The New York Times, May 17, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/obituaries/richard-pipes-historian-of-russia-and-reagan-aide-dies-at-94.html. 

Hankiss, Agnes (1981). “Ontologies of the Self: On the Mythological Rearranging of One’s Life History,” in D. Bertaux, ed., Biography and Society. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 

Hansen, Flemming Splidsboel (2016). “Russia’s Relations with the West: Ontological Security Through Conflict.” Contemporary Politics, 22, no. 3, pp. 359–375. 

Hopf, Ted (2002). Social Construction of International Politics: Identities & Foreign Policies, Moscow, 1955 and 1999. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

Hosking, Geoffrey (1995). “The Freudian Frontier.” Times literary supplement, TLS 4797, p. 27. 

Kanet, Roger E. ed. (2007). Russia: Re-emerging Great Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Kanet, Roger E. (2019). “Russian Strategic Culture, Domestic Politics and Cold War 2.0.” European Politics and Society, 20, no. 2, pp. 190–206. 

Kanet, Roger E. and Susanne M. Birgerson (1997). “The Domestic-Foreign Policy Linkage in Russian Politics: Nationalist Influences on Russian Foreign Policy.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 30, no. 4, pp. 35–44. 

Kliuchevskii, V. O. (1937). Kurs russkoi istorii, 5 vols. Moscow: Gos. Sots. Ekon. Izdatel’stvo. 

Kotkin, Stephen (2016). “Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics: Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern.” Foreign Affairs, 95, p. 2. 

Kononenko, Vadim (2011). “Introduction,” in Vadim Kononenko and Arkady Moshes, eds. Russia as a Network State. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, p. 6. Kozyrev, Andrei (1994). “The Lagging Partnership.” Foreign Affairs, 73, no. 3, pp. 59–71. 

Krashennikova, Veronica (2007). America - Russia: Cold War of Cultures: How American Values Refract Vision of Russia. Moscow: Ltd. Labirintru. 

LeDoux, Joseph E. (2003). Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. London: Penguin. 

Leichtova, Magda (2014). Misunderstanding Russia: Russian Foreign Policy and the West. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 

Levada Center (2015). “Russian Participation in the Syrian Military Conflict,” June 16. http://www.levada.ru/en/2015/11/06/russian-participation-in-the-syrian-military-conflict/print/. 

Levada Center (2014). “68% of Russian Citizens Consider Russia a Superpower. In Levada-Center, December 23. http://www.levada.ru/eng/68-russian-citizens-consider-russia-superpower. 

Levada Center (2020). “Levada Center: 25 Percent of Russians Favor Constitutional Changes; 65 Percent Don’t Understand Them,” Open Media, February 28. https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/02/28/levada-center-25-percent-of-russians-favor-constitutional-changes-65-percent-don-t-understand-them. 

Lipman, Maria (2016). “How Putin Silences Dissent: Inside the Kremlin’s Crackdown.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 38–46. Russia’s self-image 31 

Mankoff, Jeffrey (2009). Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 

Mitzen, Jennifer (2006). “Anchoring Europe’s Civilizing Identity: Habits, Capabilities and Ontological Security 1.” Journal of European Public Policy, 13, no. 2, pp. 270–285. 

Moulioukova, Dina, with Roger E. Kanet (2020). “Assertive Foreign Policy Despite Diminished Capabilities: Russian Involvement in Syria.” Global Affairs, 6, no. 3, pp. 247–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2020.1842787. 

Moulioukova, Dina with Roger E. Kanet (2022). “The Battle of Ontological Narratives: Russia and the Annexation of Crimea,” chapter 5 of this volume. 

Neumann, Iver B. (2008). “Russia as a Great Power, 1815–2007.” Journal of International Relations and Development, 11, no. 2, pp. 128–151. 

The Other Day 1961–2003. “Namedni 1961–2003: Nasha Era” (The other day 1961–2003: our Era). TV Series, 1997–2003. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0764146/. 

Oushakine, Serguei Alex (2007). “We’re Nostalgic but We’re Not Crazy”: Retrofitting the Past in Russia.” The Russian Review, 66, no. 3, pp. 451–482. 

Patterson, Molly and Kristen Renwick Monroe (1998). “Narrative in Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science, 1, pp. 315–331. https://doi.org/10.114 6/annurev.polisci.1.1.315. 

Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will Outlast the Master.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 10–17. 

Pipes, Richard (1996). “Russia’s Past, Russia’s Future.” Commentary, 101, no. 6, pp. 30. 

Pipes, Richard (1974). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

Pipes. Richard (1995). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Penguin Books, 2nd edn. 

Primakov, Andrei (1996). “Primakov Wants ‘Great’ Russia, but Calms West.” Reuters, January 12, 1996. 

Prizel, Ilya (1998). National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Putin, Vladimir (2005). “Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.” April 25. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/22931. 

Putin, Vladimir (2003). “Poslanie federal’nomu sobraniu Rossiiskoi federatsii,” May 16. http://pravdaoputine.ru/official-putin/putin-poslanie-federalnomu-sobraniyu-rossiyskoy-federatsii-2003-text-audio. 

Raeff, Marc (1971). “Patterns of Russian Imperial Policy Toward the Nationalities,” in Edward, Allworth, ed., Soviet Nationality Problems. New York: Columbia Press, pp. 22–42. 

Razyvayev, V. (1992). “Forecast: Sticks and Carrots – Controversial Reflections on Russian Foreign Policy. Nezavisimaya gazeta, in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, March 5, 44, no. 10, pp. 15. 

Roe, Paul (2000). “Former Yugoslavia: The Security Dilemma that Never Was?” European Journal of International Relations, 6, no. 3, pp. 373–393. 

Rossdale, Chris (2015). “Enclosing Critique: The Limits of Ontological Security.” International Political Sociology, 9, no. 4, pp. 369–386. 

Sakwa, Richard (2015). “The Death of Europe? Continental Fates after Ukraine. International Affairs, 91, no. 3, pp. 553–579. 32 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Savitskii, Petr N. (2003). “Evraziistvo.” (Eurasianism) in K. Pavlovsky, Gleb (2016). “Russian Politics Under Putin: The System Will OutlastKorolev, ed., Klassika Geopolitiki. XX vek (Classical Works of Geopolitics. 20th Century). Moscow: AST. Vol. 2, pp. 653–699. 

Sergeevich, Vasilii I. (1909) Drevnosti Russkogo Prava, .(St. Petersburg), 3d ed., 145. 

Steele Brent, J. (2008). Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-Identity and the IR State. Abingdon-New York: Routledge. 

Stent, Angela (2007). “Reluctant Europeans: Three Centuries of Russian Ambivalence Toward the West", in R. Legvold, ed., Russian Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century and the Shadow of the Past. New York: Columbia University Press. 

Subotić, Jelena (October 2016). “Narrative, Ontological Security, and Foreign Policy Change.” Foreign Policy Analysis, 12, no. 4, pp. 610–627. 

Surkov, Vladislav (2006). “Suverenitet—Eto Politicheskii Sinonim Konkurentosp￾osobnosti.” (Sovereignty–Is the Political Synonym for Competitiveness). Moscow: Edinaya Rossiya, p. 22. 

Thorun, Christian (2009). Explaining Change in Russian Foreign Policy: The Role of  Ideas in Post-Soviet Russia’s Conduct Towards the West. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Trenin, Dmitriĭ (2002). The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington: Carnegie Endowment. 

Trenin, Dmitri (2006). “Russia Leaves the West.” Foreign Affairs, 85, no. 4, pp. 87–96. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2012). Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin: Honor in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2014). The Strong State in Russia: Development and Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2016). Russia’s Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Tuminez, Astrid S. (2000). Russian Nationalism since 1856: Ideology and the Making of Foreign Policy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Vernadsky, George (1963). The Mongols and Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 

Vujačić, Veljko (2015). Nationalism, Myth, and the State in Russia and Serbia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Weber, Max, A. M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons (1947). The Theory of Economic and Social Organization. New York: Oxford University Press. 

“Westernizers” (2013). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia®. Retrieved April 18, 2020 from https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Westernizers. 

Putin's "Great Power" Rhetoric Followed By A Tilt Toward The West.

 

Challenges to Russian security were regarded as a consequence of circumstances inside the nation after the Soviet Union fell apart. 

External difficulties were to be addressed in partnership with the West if they arose. 

Russia seemed to be open to cooperating with, if not joining, the West. 

However, most of Russia's interests and concerns were largely overlooked by Europe and the United States (Cohen 2001). 

Rather, the West increased its participation in what had previously been the Soviet sphere of influence, attempting to restrict Moscow's ability to reclaim authority in the area (Kanet 2015; Kanet 2018a; and Spechler and Spechler 2019). 

This expansionist policy, which included NATO action in former Yugoslavia and the integration of former Warsaw Pact nations and Soviet republics into NATO, met with strong and persistent hostility from Moscow, and undoubtedly influenced Mosoc's attitude. 

At the same time, criticism of Russia's political moves grew in both Brussels and Washington. 

In order to prevent the Communist Party from regaining power, the US played a key role in guaranteeing President Boris Yeltsin's re-election in 1996. (Goldgeier and McFaul 2003). 

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Russian views and policies toward the West began to alter. 

Moscow's strategic culture and sense of national identity started to change — back toward that which had ruled the USSR and Russia for millennia – only after Vladimir Putin became president and surrounded himself with former personnel of the Soviet secret services. 

It was concluded by the Russian leadership that accomplishing security and foreign policy goals via collaboration with the West was unattainable. 

Official responses to what they regarded as mounting threats to key national security interests included a reinvigorated sense of national identity that questioned Russia's European origins and linked it to a larger Eurasia. 

As Russia pursued its objective of re-establishing itself as the main regional force throughout Eurasia and as a vital global player, this vision was joined by a rising challenge to the West's dominating position, both in Central and Eastern Europe and worldwide. 

The Russian military was rebuilt, and military actions in Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine were launched in reaction to "Western expansion." Putin's remarks at the Valdai Discussion Club from autumn 2014 through fall 2016 reflect his views on the West's antagonism and threats against Russia, as well as his renewed commitment to being acknowledged as a "Great Power" (Putin 2014, 2015, 2016). 

He repeated Russia's reluctance to acknowledge as legitimate the post-Cold War international order, which he sees as nothing more than a set of norms established by the West – to its benefit – that the US and other Western powers often ignore. 

President Vladimir Putin talked about new and improved Russian nuclear weapons in the spring of 2018. (Putin 2018). 

Soon after, Prime Minister Teresa May's administration withdrew 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation for what it saw as a Russian state attempt to murder a former Russian agent on British territory (Asthana et al. 2018). 

The US government accused Russia a few days later with "creating a series of hacks that targeted American and European nuclear power facilities, water and electric networks, and could have destroyed or shut down power plants at whim" (Perlroth and Sangermarch 2018). 

Furthermore, from Donald Trump's inauguration as president in early 2017 until the emergence of coranvirus , Russia's intervention in the 2016 US presidential election dominated most of the political headlines in the United States (Isikoff and Corn 2018). 

All of this has happened during a time of harsh Western economic sanctions on Russia in punishment for the latter's seizure and incorporation of Crimea, as well as its engagement in the eastern Ukraine civil war. 

As a consequence of these events, Russia feels itself as being hemmed in by Western forces. 

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov addressed the Academy of Military Sciences in 2005, "Let us face it, there is a war against Russia going on, and it has been going on for a long time." There was no declaration of war against us. 

There isn't a single nation that would go to war with Russia. 

However, individuals and organizations from a variety of nations participate in hostilities against the Russian Federation (Ivanov, cited in Blank 2017, 729). 

In a similar spirit, the current Defence Minister, Sergey Shoigu, described color revolutions as a new type of warfare invented by the West with the goal of weakening the Russian Federation's and its allies' defenses in a speech to a conference on international security in May 2014. (Papert 2014). 

By the time of the Ukrainian Crisis and the imposition of the first Western sanctions on Russia, military and security officials in Moscow had concluded that the West was engaged in a new type of warfare, justifying a cyberwarfare response targeting electoral systems and critical economic infrastructure in the United States and European Union countries.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read and learn more about Global Geo Politics, Conflicts, And Conflict Resolution here.

Find Jai on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

References 

Abramov, Roman and A. A. Chistiakova (2012). “Nostal'nicheskie Reprezentatsii Pozdnego Sovetskogo Periodav Media Proektakh L.Parfenova: Povolnam KollektivnoIpamiati.” Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal issledovanii kul'tury, 1, pp. 52–58. http://culturalresearch.ru/files/open_issues/01_2012/IJCR_01(6)_2012_abram_chist.pdf. 

Adomeit, Hannes (1995). “Russia as a ‘Great Power’ in World Affairs: Images and Reality.” International Affairs 71, no. 1, pp. 35–68. 

Akchurina, Viktoria, and Vincent Della Sala (2018). “Russia, Europe and the Ontological Security Dilemma: Narrating the Emerging Eurasian Space,” Europe￾Asia Studies, 70, no. 10, pp. 1638–1655. Published online: December 24, 2018. 

Aksakov, Konstantin (1966). “On the Internal State of Russia,” in M. Raeff, ed., Russian Intellectual History: An Anthology. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, pp. 231–251. 

Billington, James H. (2004). Russia in Search of Itself. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. 

Boym. Svetlana (1995). “From the Russian Soul to Post-Communist Nostalgia.” Representations, 49, pp. 133–166. DOI: 10.2307/2928753. 

Burton, Robert A. (2009). On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. New York: Macmillan. 

Cherniavsky, Michael (1959). “Khan or Basileus: An Aspect of Russian Mediaeval Political Theory.” Journal of the History of Ideas 20, no. 4, pp. 459–476. 

Danilevskii, Nikolai (1869). “ Rossiia i Evropa”, Zaria, pp. 1–10. 

David-Fox, Michael (2015). Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 

Della Sala, Vincent and Viktoria Akchurina (2019). “Love and Fear in the Neighbourhood: Emotions and Ontological Security in Foreign Policy Analysis.” APSA Preprints. Working Paper. doi: 10.33774/apsa-2019-dzv4j. 

Forsberg, Tuomas (2014). “Status Conflicts Between Russia and the West: Perceptions and Emotional Biases.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47, no. 3, pp. 323–331. 

Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 

Gorbachev, Oleg (2015). “The Namedni Project and the Evolution of Nostalgia in post-Soviet Russia.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 57, no. 3-4, pp. 180–194. 30 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Gumilëv, Lev (1990). Nikolaevič. Ėtnogenez i biosfera Zemli. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. 

Grimes, William (2018). “Richard Pipes, Historian of Russia and Reagan Aide, Dies at 94.” The New York Times, May 17, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/obituaries/richard-pipes-historian-of-russia-and-reagan-aide-dies-at-94.html. 

Hankiss, Agnes (1981). “Ontologies of the Self: On the Mythological Rearranging of One’s Life History,” in D. Bertaux, ed., Biography and Society. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 

Hansen, Flemming Splidsboel (2016). “Russia’s Relations with the West: Ontological Security Through Conflict.” Contemporary Politics, 22, no. 3, pp. 359–375. 

Hopf, Ted (2002). Social Construction of International Politics: Identities & Foreign Policies, Moscow, 1955 and 1999. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

Hosking, Geoffrey (1995). “The Freudian Frontier.” Times literary supplement, TLS 4797, p. 27. 

Kanet, Roger E. ed. (2007). Russia: Re-emerging Great Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Kanet, Roger E. (2019). “Russian Strategic Culture, Domestic Politics and Cold War 2.0.” European Politics and Society, 20, no. 2, pp. 190–206. 

Kanet, Roger E. and Susanne M. Birgerson (1997). “The Domestic-Foreign Policy Linkage in Russian Politics: Nationalist Influences on Russian Foreign Policy.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 30, no. 4, pp. 35–44. 

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Krashennikova, Veronica (2007). America - Russia: Cold War of Cultures: How American Values Refract Vision of Russia. Moscow: Ltd. Labirintru. 

LeDoux, Joseph E. (2003). Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. London: Penguin. 

Leichtova, Magda (2014). Misunderstanding Russia: Russian Foreign Policy and the West. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 

Levada Center (2015). “Russian Participation in the Syrian Military Conflict,” June 16. http://www.levada.ru/en/2015/11/06/russian-participation-in-the-syrian-military-conflict/print/. 

Levada Center (2014). “68% of Russian Citizens Consider Russia a Superpower. In Levada-Center, December 23. http://www.levada.ru/eng/68-russian-citizens-consider-russia-superpower. 

Levada Center (2020). “Levada Center: 25 Percent of Russians Favor Constitutional Changes; 65 Percent Don’t Understand Them,” Open Media, February 28. https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/02/28/levada-center-25-percent-of-russians-favor-constitutional-changes-65-percent-don-t-understand-them. 

Lipman, Maria (2016). “How Putin Silences Dissent: Inside the Kremlin’s Crackdown.” Foreign Affairs, 95, no. 3, pp. 38–46. Russia’s self-image 31 

Mankoff, Jeffrey (2009). Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 

Mitzen, Jennifer (2006). “Anchoring Europe’s Civilizing Identity: Habits, Capabilities and Ontological Security 1.” Journal of European Public Policy, 13, no. 2, pp. 270–285. 

Moulioukova, Dina, with Roger E. Kanet (2020). “Assertive Foreign Policy Despite Diminished Capabilities: Russian Involvement in Syria.” Global Affairs, 6, no. 3, pp. 247–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2020.1842787. 

Moulioukova, Dina with Roger E. Kanet (2022). “The Battle of Ontological Narratives: Russia and the Annexation of Crimea,” chapter 5 of this volume. 

Neumann, Iver B. (2008). “Russia as a Great Power, 1815–2007.” Journal of International Relations and Development, 11, no. 2, pp. 128–151. 

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Oushakine, Serguei Alex (2007). “We’re Nostalgic but We’re Not Crazy”: Retrofitting the Past in Russia.” The Russian Review, 66, no. 3, pp. 451–482. 

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Pipes, Richard (1974). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

Pipes. Richard (1995). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Penguin Books, 2nd edn. 

Primakov, Andrei (1996). “Primakov Wants ‘Great’ Russia, but Calms West.” Reuters, January 12, 1996. 

Prizel, Ilya (1998). National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

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Putin, Vladimir (2003). “Poslanie federal’nomu sobraniu Rossiiskoi federatsii,” May 16. http://pravdaoputine.ru/official-putin/putin-poslanie-federalnomu-sobraniyu-rossiyskoy-federatsii-2003-text-audio. 

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Roe, Paul (2000). “Former Yugoslavia: The Security Dilemma that Never Was?” European Journal of International Relations, 6, no. 3, pp. 373–393. 

Rossdale, Chris (2015). “Enclosing Critique: The Limits of Ontological Security.” International Political Sociology, 9, no. 4, pp. 369–386. 

Sakwa, Richard (2015). “The Death of Europe? Continental Fates after Ukraine. International Affairs, 91, no. 3, pp. 553–579. 32 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

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Stent, Angela (2007). “Reluctant Europeans: Three Centuries of Russian Ambivalence Toward the West", in R. Legvold, ed., Russian Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century and the Shadow of the Past. New York: Columbia University Press. 

Subotić, Jelena (October 2016). “Narrative, Ontological Security, and Foreign Policy Change.” Foreign Policy Analysis, 12, no. 4, pp. 610–627. 

Surkov, Vladislav (2006). “Suverenitet—Eto Politicheskii Sinonim Konkurentosp￾osobnosti.” (Sovereignty–Is the Political Synonym for Competitiveness). Moscow: Edinaya Rossiya, p. 22. 

Thorun, Christian (2009). Explaining Change in Russian Foreign Policy: The Role of  Ideas in Post-Soviet Russia’s Conduct Towards the West. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Trenin, Dmitriĭ (2002). The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington: Carnegie Endowment. 

Trenin, Dmitri (2006). “Russia Leaves the West.” Foreign Affairs, 85, no. 4, pp. 87–96. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2012). Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin: Honor in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2014). The Strong State in Russia: Development and Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Tsygankov, Andrei P. (2016). Russia’s Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Tuminez, Astrid S. (2000). Russian Nationalism since 1856: Ideology and the Making of Foreign Policy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Vernadsky, George (1963). The Mongols and Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 

Vujačić, Veljko (2015). Nationalism, Myth, and the State in Russia and Serbia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Weber, Max, A. M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons (1947). The Theory of Economic and Social Organization. New York: Oxford University Press. 

“Westernizers” (2013). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia®. Retrieved April 18, 2020 from https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Westernizers. 

Will Russia Remain A Superpower?

 

Another facet of Russia's ontological security is its imperial expansion's capacity to project authority and meet physical security demands. 

The quest of a Russian empire is inextricably linked to its geographical territory and history, just as it is with the powerful state symbolized by a great leader. 

Putin said in 2003 that a nation like Russia "was constantly faced with the possibility of disintegration...during all of its periods of weakness." He also said that "if Russia remains a major power, it can live and expand within current boundaries" (Putin 2003). 

As a consequence, an imperial physical area and Russian self-perception as a great power are linked, with territorial vastness serving as proof of moral size and might (Leichtova 2014). 

When the Russian philosopher Konstantin Leontiev (quoted in Trenin 2002, 29) said that Russia was "doomed to develop, even against itself," he was referring to the almost fatalistic perspective of Russia's expansionism. 

In Russia's imperial conquest, the economic and geopolitical justifications for its expansionist ambitions have combined. 

When it came to dealing with economic threats, the overlap between imperial expansion and peasant colonization was virtually indistinguishable, as the "land hungry peasantry moved into new territories that sometimes predated and sometimes followed the ever-new frontiers of the state, blurred the boundary between colonization and imperialism" (Raeff 1971, 22–43). 

As a result, the country's expansionism was a method of ensuring that Russia's peasants had access to better land and that the Russian populace had the resources it needed to survive. 

Imperial expansion occurred in reaction to Russia's physical threats, much as the consolidation of power in a powerful state outlined earlier. 

Russia's geographical expansion was prompted by threats to its security and physical existence (Trenin 2002, 33). 

The Russian state's choice to become an empire was a response to its near-constant state of war, since Russia "was attacked more often and with more power than any other early modern empire" (Tsygankov 2012, 23). 

As a result, the logic of competition, motivated by the will to live, pushed Russia to fight war and extend its territory. 

Russians had to choose between dying or confronting their enemies with force and then developing the conquered areas to their advantage. 

As a result, the strengthening of boundaries provided fertile ground for colonization. 

Furthermore, Russian security was predisposed to expand outside in order to avoid foreign threats. 

Vernadsky (1963) ascribed imperial Russia's development to interactions with Eastern tribes, particularly the Mongols. 

Kliuchevskii (1937) viewed the colonization of the Eurasian plain and the creation of the Principality of Moscovy to be the most significant events in Russian imperial history, alongside Vernadsky. 

Russia managed to grow at a pace of around 50 miles per day for hundreds of years, ultimately spanning one-sixth of the earth's territory, beginning with the formation of the state of Moscovy under Ivan Grozny (Kotkin 2016, 2). 

The essential feature of Russian imperial growth was not just its size, but also its scope. 

Pipes (1996) claims that the Russian Empire is ontologically distinct from other empires that have existed in the past. 

While imperial growth proceeded chronologically following the creation of the national state in other Western empires, such as the Roman, British, and Spanish, it happened simultaneously and not in order in Russia (Pipes 1996). 

As a result, the ontological awareness of an empire and the notion of a country coexisted in Russia. 

The early imperial expansion to the east began in the 16th century, when Ivan the Terrible took the Tatar city of Kazan in 1552 and Astrakhan a few years later in 1556, and included the enormous number of people who did not share the Russians' faith or language. 

This conquest occurred barely a few decades after Russia had completed its own consolidation as a state by collecting Russian territory. 

This was a deliberate attempt by Moscovy to acquire adjacent areas. 

Within 200 years, Moscow's monarchy expanded its geographic realm by annexing or seizing the territory of fragmented Slavic kingdoms by military force or other means. 

Pskov and Ryazan were absorbed in 1510 and 1521, respectively, to complete the process. 

Moskovy was therefore still undergoing internal consolidation when, a few decades later, it received the imperial dominion of two khanates. 

As a result, its imperial conquest coincided with the establishment of the Russian state and the creation of its ontological understanding. 

As a consequence, unlike other states, Russia's imperial sphere is inextricably linked to its own existence as a state and its ontological understanding. 

In one of his review pieces, Hosking expresses this idea succinctly: "Britain had an empire, but Russia was an empire, and maybe still is" (Hosking 1995, 27). 

Russia's advance into Siberia started with the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, annexing a substantial Muslim population and transforming Russia into a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state. 

That a result, Russia developed an imperial identity at the same time as it developed a national identity. 

The ongoing process of defining and establishing an empire, as well as Russia's urge to acquire new territory and peoples, left the foundation of Russia as a state and a country in a state of flux, ultimately leading to a feeling of incompleteness. 

As a consequence of Russia's expansionist goals, a plethora of ethnic groups with separate languages, cultural traditions, and religious beliefs were annexed to the country, further complicating the notion of Russian nationality. 

Russia's high sensitivity to any difficulties connected to its geographic impact may be explained by the significance of imperial identity for the country's ontological security, since these issues seem to assault the country's fundamental heart as a state. 

Russian rulers such as Peter the Great and Catherine the Great further integrated and structured imperial ideologies into purposeful rhetorical creations. 

Peter saw imperial rhetoric as largely directed towards Russia's external neighbors, notably the West. 

He made an effort to reaffirm Russia's position in the area. 

Catherine the Great, on the other hand, stressed Russia's size as a formidable empire and a weapon for ensuring the safety and well-being of its residents as well as international stability (Leichtova 2014). 

These critical episodes of Russian territorial expansion and consolidation, motivated by physical security concerns, had a significant influence on Russia's ontological security. 

The country's outward imperial expansion was matched by an internal consolidation of power that became a defining feature of the Russian state, as Vujai describes it: "a twofold triumph...over his own people and ethnically and religiously alien people - the leitmotif of imperial Russian history" (2015, 100). 

As a result, the evolution of Russia into an empire was inextricably linked from the start to the patrimonial ruler's subjection of all socioeconomic strata. 

Despite their subjection, the Russian people have a thorough understanding of imperial ontological consciousness. 

In his book The End of Eurasia, Trenin (2002) believes that Russians' ontological understanding of the nation as a major power is crucial. 

When Putin was elected president in 1999, a survey of Moscow high school students found that more than half of those polled supported the restoration of the Russian Empire within its Soviet-era or pre-revolutionary boundaries. 

The yearning among Russian young for territorial revanchism is frightening and readily explained. 

For many Russians, the old Soviet Union was more than simply an empire; it was a state with a large geographic footprint that "was feared and hence admired," highlighting the clear ontological link between territory and power in Russian identity (Trenin 2002, 27). 

Ontological perceptions of Russian identity, on the other hand, are not static. 

They are always changing and reiterating. 

Physical space has also played a factor in Russians' perceptions of their country's superpower status. 

When asked, "What makes a nation a superpower?" the size of the country was nearly as important to Russians as respect and authority in the world, and it had tripled in significance since 1999, surpassing civil rights as a primary aim (Levada Center 2014).

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read and learn more about Global Geo Politics, Conflicts, And Conflict Resolution here.

Find Jai on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

References 

Abramov, Roman and A. A. Chistiakova (2012). “Nostal'nicheskie Reprezentatsii Pozdnego Sovetskogo Periodav Media Proektakh L.Parfenova: Povolnam KollektivnoIpamiati.” Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal issledovanii kul'tury, 1, pp. 52–58. http://culturalresearch.ru/files/open_issues/01_2012/IJCR_01(6)_2012_abram_chist.pdf. 

Adomeit, Hannes (1995). “Russia as a ‘Great Power’ in World Affairs: Images and Reality.” International Affairs 71, no. 1, pp. 35–68. 

Akchurina, Viktoria, and Vincent Della Sala (2018). “Russia, Europe and the Ontological Security Dilemma: Narrating the Emerging Eurasian Space,” Europe￾Asia Studies, 70, no. 10, pp. 1638–1655. Published online: December 24, 2018. 

Aksakov, Konstantin (1966). “On the Internal State of Russia,” in M. Raeff, ed., Russian Intellectual History: An Anthology. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, pp. 231–251. 

Billington, James H. (2004). Russia in Search of Itself. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. 

Boym. Svetlana (1995). “From the Russian Soul to Post-Communist Nostalgia.” Representations, 49, pp. 133–166. DOI: 10.2307/2928753. 

Burton, Robert A. (2009). On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. New York: Macmillan. 

Cherniavsky, Michael (1959). “Khan or Basileus: An Aspect of Russian Mediaeval Political Theory.” Journal of the History of Ideas 20, no. 4, pp. 459–476. 

Danilevskii, Nikolai (1869). “ Rossiia i Evropa”, Zaria, pp. 1–10. 

David-Fox, Michael (2015). Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 

Della Sala, Vincent and Viktoria Akchurina (2019). “Love and Fear in the Neighbourhood: Emotions and Ontological Security in Foreign Policy Analysis.” APSA Preprints. Working Paper. doi: 10.33774/apsa-2019-dzv4j. 

Forsberg, Tuomas (2014). “Status Conflicts Between Russia and the West: Perceptions and Emotional Biases.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47, no. 3, pp. 323–331. 

Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 

Gorbachev, Oleg (2015). “The Namedni Project and the Evolution of Nostalgia in post-Soviet Russia.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 57, no. 3-4, pp. 180–194. 30 Dina Moulioukova with Roger E. Kanet 

Gumilëv, Lev (1990). Nikolaevič. Ėtnogenez i biosfera Zemli. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. 

Grimes, William (2018). “Richard Pipes, Historian of Russia and Reagan Aide, Dies at 94.” The New York Times, May 17, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/obituaries/richard-pipes-historian-of-russia-and-reagan-aide-dies-at-94.html. 

Hankiss, Agnes (1981). “Ontologies of the Self: On the Mythological Rearranging of One’s Life History,” in D. Bertaux, ed., Biography and Society. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 

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