Fyodor Lukyanov

The notion of multipolarity has shaped Russian foreign policy horizon since mid-90s, when it became clear that Russian integration into Western system as an equal partner was not an option. The idea of a multipolar world promoted by then foreign minister Yevgeni Primakov was reaction to American dominance in international affairs, a way to counterbalance rising U.S. unilateralism, but did not contain any serious strategy. That rhetoric revived 2003, when Russia decided to join France and Germany in their opposition to Iraq war, but the main purpose of Moscow was to achieve a breakthrough in relationship with the European Union, which didn’t happen. By the end of this decade emerging multipolarity and relative decline of the U.S. power turned into most frequently discussed international issue worldwide. Russian interest in that configuration started to evolve into real strategy of foreign policy diversification towards new centers of power like China, India, Brazil and Iran.