in September 2000 in July 2001 in September 2015 in June 2019 in June 2021 in August 2025 In June 2000, Putin's decree was approved by the "Concept of the Russian Federation's foreign policy". According to this document, the main objectives of foreign policy are the following: • Ensuring reliable security of the country. • The impact of global processes in order to create a stable, just and democratic world order. • The creation of favorable external conditions for the onward development of Russian. • Formation of the Neighbourhood zone around the perimeter of the Russian borders. • Search agreement and coinciding interests with foreign countries and international associations in the process of solving problems, Russia's national priorities. • Protecting the rights and interests of Russian citizens and compatriots abroad. • Promote a positive perception of the Russian Federation in the world. On 10 February 2007, Putin delivered a
confrontational speech in Munich where, inter alia, he accused the
West of breaking the promise not to
expand NATO into new countries in
Eastern Europe believing that is a threat to Russia's national security. According to John Lough, associate fellow of the
Chatham House, Putin's statement was based on the myth that the
West deceived Russia by reneging on its promises at the end of the
Cold War not to enlarge
NATO and chose to pass up the opportunity to integrate Russia into a new European security framework and instead encouraged Moscow back on to a path of confrontation with the United States and its allies. In fact, the Soviet Union neither asked for nor was given any formal guarantees that there would be no further expansion of NATO beyond the territory of a
united Germany and, in addition, the Soviet Union signed the Charter of Paris in November 1990 with the commitment to 'fully recognize the freedom of States to choose their own security arrangements'. In opinion of
Andrey Kolesnikov, senior fellow of the
Carnegie Moscow Center, this speech was the "foul of the last hope": Russian president wanted to scare the West with his frankness believing that, perhaps, "western partners" would take into account his concerns and make several steps forward to meet him. It had a reverse effect but this scenario was also calculated: either you will or you will not, Russia will be transforming from the fragment of the
West into the super-sovereign island. Seeing as what happened thereafter, he decided for himself that he is free in his actions: because he had not succeeded in becoming a world leader by western rules, he would become a world leader by his own rules. In a 2010 article in the German newspaper
Süddeutsche Zeitung dedicated to the participation in the annual economic forum, it was proposed to create a European economic alliance stretching from
Vladivostok to
Lisbon. As steps towards the creation of the alliance indicates a possible unification of customs tariffs and technical regulations, the abolition of the visa regime with the
European Union. In August 2013, according to experts the Russian-American relations have reached their lowest point since the end of the
Cold War era. The September President
Barack Obama's visit to
Moscow and his talks with Putin were canceled due to temporary asylum in Russia, a former employee of the
CIA Edward Snowden, disagreements on the
situation in Syria and the problems with human rights in Russia. Russia has a long history of
Anti-Americanism, dating back to the early days of the
Cold War. In some of the latest Russian population polls, the United States and its allies consistently top the list of greatest enemies. Survey results published by the
Levada-Center indicate that, as of August 2018, Russians increasingly viewed the United States positively following the
Russia–U.S. summit in Helsinki in July 2018. But only 14% of Russians expressed net approval of
Donald Trump's policies in 2019. According to the Pew Research Center, "57% of Russians ages 18 to 29 see the U.S. favorably, compared with only 15% of Russians ages 50 and older." On 11 September 2013,
The New York Times published an article by Putin, "Russia calls for caution". It is written in the form of an open letter to the American people, containing an explanation of the Russian political line against the Syrian conflict. It is also the Russian president warns against President Obama's thesis "About the exclusivity of the American nation". The article caused a mixed reaction of the world community. In 2013, Putin won the first place in the annual ranking of most influential people in the world by
Forbes. In 2014, the result was the same. ,
Erdoğan,
Modi, Xi Jinping and other leaders at the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on 16 September 2022 On 18 March 2014, Vladimir Putin gave the
Crimean speech. Many Russian and foreign public figures compared this speech to
Hitler's speech on Sudetenland from 1939 as using "the same arguments and vision of history". Pro-Kremlin
politologist Andranik Migranyan opposed to the position of the
historian Andrey Zubov and stated that there was a difference between
Adolf Hitler before 1939 and Hitler after 1939, and after the
annexation of Crimea Putin should be compared with "good Hitler". On 24 October 2014, Vladimir Putin made the
Valdai speech in which he accused the
United States of undermining the world order and predicted that the clash would not be the last to pit Russia and the United States against each other. Putin threatened "sharp increase in the likelihood of a whole set of violent conflicts with either direct or indirect participation by the world's major powers" including those arising from "internal instability in certain countries" "located at the intersections of major states’ geopolitical interests, or on the border of cultural, historical, and economic civilizational continents", citing the example of
Ukraine and warning that this example "will certainly not be the last". in Moscow during Xi's
visit to Russia in March 2023. In September 2015, Putin spoke at the
United Nations General Assembly session in
New York City for the first time in 10 years. In his speech, he urged the formation of a broad anti-terrorist coalition to combat
ISIS and blamed the
events in Ukraine on "external forces", warned the West against unilateral sanctions, attempts to push Russia from the world market and export of
color revolutions. For the first time, he also held a meeting with President Obama to discuss the situation in
Syria and
Ukraine, but in the outcome of the negotiations and despite the persistence of deep contradictions the experts saw a faint hope for a compromise and the warming of relations between the two countries. In September 2015, Vladimir Putin sent
Russian troops in Syria supporting
Bashar al-Assad in his war against
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,
Al-Nusra Front and also
Syrian opposition militant groups opposed to the Syrian government.
Wagner Group, affiliated to Putin's close circle and tacitly coordinated by
GRU, was also used in the war against
Assad's opponents. in Kazan, Russia, 23 October 2024 Putin supported
Nicolás Maduro in
Venezuelan presidential crisis and sent Russian troops led by the chief of staff of the
Russian Ground Forces Colonel General to
Caracas. On 29 August 2020, Vladimir Putin stated that Russia accepts the election result of
Belarusian presidential election and recognizes
Alexander Lukashenko as legitimate
President of Belarus. Earlier, in mid-August 2020, there were reports that several dozen
trucks, identical to the ones used by the
National Guard of Russia, without registration plates and any marks, were sighted in
Smolensk Oblast and
Pskov Oblast heading toward
Belarusian border. In Conflict Intelligence Team assessment, these trucks could carry no less than 600 soldiers. Kremlin did not confirm the sending Russian troops to Belarus, said that events in Belarus did not yet warrant Russia's military involvement and condemned alleged foreign interference in Belarus's affairs by
Western countries against the backdrop of
mass protests in Belarus.
Hans van Baalen considered that Russian
intervention in Belarus is already a fact.
State-sponsored global public relations effort during the
World Holocaust Forum at the
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, January 2020 Shortly after the
Beslan terror act in September 2004, Putin enhanced a Kremlin-sponsored program aimed at "improving Russia's image" abroad. According to an unnamed former Duma deputy, there existed a classified article in the RF federal budget that provided for financing measures to this purpose. One of the major projects of the program was the creation in 2005 of
Russia Today—a rolling
English-language TV news channel providing 24-hour news coverage, modeled on
CNN. Towards its start-up budget, $30 million of public funds were allocated. A
CBS News story on the launch of Russia Today quoted
Boris Kagarlitsky as saying it was "very much a continuation of the old
Soviet propaganda services". In 2007,
Russia Today employed nearly 100 English-speaking special correspondents worldwide. Russia's deputy foreign minister
Grigory Karasin said in August 2008 in the context of the
Russia-Georgia conflict: "Western media is a well-organized machine, which is showing only those pictures that fit in well with their thoughts. We find it very difficult to squeeze our opinion into the pages of their newspapers". Similar views were expressed by some Western commentators. William Dunbar, who was reporting then for
Russia Today from
Georgia, said he had not been on air since he mentioned Russian bombing of targets inside Georgia on 9 August 2008 and had to resign over what he claimed was biased coverage by the outlet. , the winner of
2014 Russian Grand Prix. The public relations efforts notwithstanding, according to an opinion poll released in February 2009 by the BBC World Service, Russia's image around the world had taken a dramatic dive in 2008: forty-two percent of respondents said they had a "mainly negative" view of Russia, according to the poll, which surveyed more than 13,000 people in 21 countries in December and January. In June 2007,
Vedomosti reported that the Kremlin had been intensifying its official
lobbying activities in the United States since 2003, among other things hiring such companies as Hannaford Enterprises and
Ketchum. In the 2012
Moskovskiye Novosti magazine article "Russia and changing world", Putin directly stated that
Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation and
Russkiy Mir Foundation are Russia's international lobbying tools. In accordance with 26 Article of Federal Law of 24 May 1999, No.99-FZ, Worldwide Congress of Compatriots is the highest body that ensures interaction between
Russian compatriots and Russia's authorities; in the inter-Congress period, the executive functions in the sphere of interaction between Russian compatriots and Russia's authorities are carried out by . in Russia is another organization that unify different movements of
Russian émigrés. International Council of Russian Compatriots was founded after the congress with the participation of Vladimir Putin, which was held in 2001. In opinion of Dmitry Khmelnitsky, Soviet and German
architect and
historian, the Russian network of agents of influence abroad is extraordinarily broad and differentiated. It consists of a multitude of organizations created and financed by Moscow and under social groups and simulating social, cultural and scholarly activity. Some of these organizations are directed at the local communities, others at émigrés from the Soviet Union and Russia, although sometimes both these tasks are addressed by one and the same organizations. Their classification by itself is worthy of attention because under this format, the Russian special services work in all the countries of the world. Since Vladimir Putin came to power, Moscow has created several major and many minor organizations to work with
Russian and
Soviet emigres. Among the most important are the International Council of Russian Compatriots, the Worldwide Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad, the Worldwide Congress of Russian-Speaking Jewry and the
Russkiy Mir Foundation, a pass-through funding group which now operates more than 200 Russian centers around the world. But it is only the tip of the iceberg. The Russian network of agents of influence in
Western countries included even military-patriotic camps where Russian-speaking youth received military training. The activity of the one of such camps caused a scandal in
Serbian society. Some pro-Kremlin
Russian diaspora organizations are under the investigation by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Militarism and wars outside Russian territory and
Valery Gerasimov at the Center-2019 military exercise
Russian Armed Forces underwent various reforms during Putin's rule. The first reform was announced by minister of defence
Sergei Ivanov in 2001 and was completed in 2004. As a result of the reform, constant combat readiness
military units, staffed with
volunteers only, appeared in Russia but
draft system had been retained. As of 2008, there were 20% constant combat readiness
military units, manned to wartime standards, and 80%
cadre military units, manned to peacetime standards, in
Russian Armed Forces. After the
Russo-Georgian War, it became clear that Russian military organization needed further reform; as
Vladimir Shamanov said,
cadre regiments and divisions, intended for receiving mobilization resources and deployment in the period immediately preceding the outbreak of war, have become a costly relic. On 14 October 2008, minister of defence
Anatoly Serdyukov announced the beginning of new reform. The main organizational change was the transition from a 4-level operational chain of command (Military District – Army – Division – Regiment) to a 3-level one (Military District – Operational Command (Army) – Brigade). Also Russia fully refused
cadre military units, manned to peacetime standards (so-called "paper divisions"), and since that times only constant combat readiness
military units, 100% manned up to wartime standards, were part of
Russian Armed Forces. On 31 October 2010,
Anatoly Serdyukov stated that changes in organizational-regular structure was completed. . As of February 2023, the number of Russian soldiers
killed and wounded in Ukraine was estimated at nearly 200,000. According to Alexander Golts, journalist and military columnist, as a result of aforementioned reforms, Russia gained absolute military dominance in the post-Soviet area and
Russian Armed Forces gained the ability that it had never had: ability to quick deployment, which was clearly demonstrated on 26 February 2014. Some military experts mentioned that since the
Annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the
Russo-Ukrainian War, Russia organized many new military units and formations without a significant increase in the number of
volunteers and
conscripts, prompting them to consider these units "paper divisions". However, in 2018, Russia began to form a
military reserve force staffed by volunteers selected from among retired active duty soldiers. Reservists serve in conventional military units; thus, reserve units are staffed to wartime standards and are therefore indistinguishable from regular units. The number of reservists is not made available to the public in open sources or from the
Ministry of Defence. This makes it difficult for establish real troop strength of new Russian military formations. According to
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia had been in the top 5 military spenders since 2006, except 2018, and Russia's military expenditure reached $61.7 billion in 2020. In
RBK assessment, based on 2017
Federal State Statistics Service data, budget expenditures,
classified as
state secret, reached 5,3% of
gross domestic product. In 2021, the 15% of budget expenditures are
classified as
state secret. on a billboard reads In
Andrey Piontkovsky's opinion, Putin feels frustration towards the Soviet Union's defeat in the
Cold War — which Piontkovsky calls a
"Third World War" — and seeks to defeat the
West in a "Fourth World War." In fact, Putin has started this war in 2014 with
annexation of Crimea, more specifically since 20 February 2014 – this date is specified in the
Medal "For the Return of Crimea". Piontkovsky believes that geopolitical thinking of Putin and his close circle was reflected in the 2018 "Zavtra" magazine article by Alexander Khaldey: Piontkovsky considers that Putin's strategical purposes are following: 1) the installation of Russian military and political control under post-Soviet area and, perhaps,
Central Europe; 2) the discrediting of
NATO as unable to protect its members; 3) the entrenching Russia's sphere of interest in
Europe through new
"Yalta Agreement" with humiliated
USA. These goals should be achieved through 3 elements: •
Gerasimov doctrine of hybrid war •
Patrushev doctrine of nuclear blackmail • Russian traditional despising an own citizens lives that provides an advantage over "hedonistic
West" The Gerasimov doctrine enunciates wide use of so-called non-linear warfare and reflexive control (propaganda, cyberattacks, diplomatic actions, economic instruments, bribing foreign public officials, etc.); specifically fighting are carried out by special forces and mercenaries under the guise of local partisans. This doctrine declares that non-military tactics are not auxiliary to the use of force but the preferred way to win; that they are, in fact, the actual war. The difference between Gerasimov doctrine and Western views of hybrid conflict is that Russian doctrine combines both low-end, hidden state involvement with high-end, direct, even braggadocio superpower involvement. Russian hybrid warfare conduct aims to create a "hallucinating fog of war" and consistent deception that aims not to paralyze the West's intelligence and anticipatory capabilities, but to alter Western analytical end-results and perceptions of Russia's strategic intentions. The Gerasimov doctrine has been directly applied by Russia in the
Russo-Ukrainian War. ' - or Young Army. The Young Army movement is the Kremlin's attempt to mobilize and provide basic military skills to
Russian youth. The essence of the Patrushev doctrine boils down to "de-escalation through nuclear escalation". Russia would cause a direct military conflict against NATO in any region outside Russian territory, for example in the
Baltic States, avoiding the use of weapons of mass destruction. At first, Russia would succeed, using an element of surprise, but later a turning point in the war would be achieved to the benefit of NATO. At that time, Russia would threaten to use nuclear weapons, and if the threats do not succeed, Russia would launch a limited nuclear strike on targets in
Europe. If the
West decide to make a limited nuclear retaliatory strike, then Russia would make a larger nuclear strike on targets in Europe and
USA. Kremlin strategists believe that the
West would flinch first, giving up to "strong-willed Russia", and would agree to end the war on Putin's terms. American response to Russian Patrushev doctrine has been so-called
Pompeo doctrine, the major standpoints of which were set out in the 2018 US National Defense Strategy, in which for the first time since the end of the Cold War Russia was designated as a global power and principal opponent of the
USA. The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review declared that the key objective of U.S. nuclear policy is to dissuade Russia from its mistaken impression that a first-use of nuclear weapons by Russia in a conflict would de-escalate the conflict with terms favorable to Russia. As in the Cold War times, the
Arctic can be the area of potential NATO-Russia conflict. On 7 March 2024, American president
Joe Biden given the
2024 State of the Union Address where he compared Russia under Vladimir Putin to
Adolf Hitler's
conquests of Europe.
Olympic Games Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has three times (
2008,
2014, and
2022) invaded a neighboring country during or immediately after the Olympic games.
Special operations outside Russian territory == Ideology ==