Russian foreign policy

freedom for whom, to do what?

pp. 189-224

in: Käte C. Langdon, Vladimir Tismaneanu, Putin's totalitarian democracy, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

Abstract

Langdon and Tismaneanu scrutinize Putin's aggressive foreign policy decisions in Ukraine and Syria, presenting the conclusion that Putin manages to maintain his domestic popularity ratings through the totalitarian practice of artificially uniting the country against fabricated foreign threats. As such, foreign policy is not an end in itself, but rather a tool used to further legitimize Putin's domestic authority by distracting the public from internal woes and instead presenting the celebratory image of a powerful, moral Russian state. Such a conclusion also highlights how the Russian citizenry itself plays a major role as an accomplice in their state's rise to totalitarianism and imperialism.