Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday endorsed a new foreign policy doctrine built around the concept of a “Russian peace,” a concept that conservative ideologues have used to justify intervention abroad in support of Russian-speakers, Reuters reported.

The “humanitarian policy”, contained in a 31-page document and published more than six months after the start of the war in Ukraine, states that Russia must “protect, save and promote the traditions and ideals of the Russian world”.

Although it is presented as a kind of “soft power” strategy, it embeds in official foreign policy ideas related to Russian politics and religion that some hardliners have used to justify Moscow’s occupation of parts of Ukraine and support for pro-Russian separatists. formations in the east of Russia. country.

“The Russian Federation provides support to compatriots living abroad in the exercise of their rights, ensures the protection of their interests and the preservation of Russian cultural identity,” reads Moscow’s new foreign policy doctrine.

The doctrine also states that Russia’s ties with its compatriots abroad have allowed it to “consolidate its image on the international arena as a democratic country fighting for the creation of a multipolar world.”

For years, Vladimir Putin has discussed what he sees as the tragic fate of some 25 million ethnic Russians who ended up outside Russia in newly independent states after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, an event he has called a “geopolitical catastrophe.” .

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