RUSSIA TURNS ITS BACK ON THE WEST
RUSSIA TURNS ITS BACK ON THE WEST

Author(s): Agnieszka Legucka
Subject(s): Politics, International relations/trade, Russian Aggression against Ukraine
Published by: PISM Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych
Keywords: Ukraine; Invasion; Russia; West; Policy;
Summary/Abstract: With its invasion of Ukraine, Russia voluntarily took its place as Europe’s pariah. However, it had been moving in this direction consistently for years. Russia has regarded the West as a threat for a while, at least to the survival of the political system that Vladimir Putin was trying to build. The tightening of cooperation with selected EU countries, mainly in terms of trade in raw materials, and the coquettishness of the political and business elites of certain European states were calculated to play up the divisions in Europe so that Putinism would not be threatened by further colour revolutions. However, the example of Ukraine, whose society and political elites have gradually turned to the path of Euro-Atlantic integration, has become an existential threat to Putin, to which he has responded with a full-scale war. The invasion thus seals the choice for Russia, which will turn now to coalesce with authoritarian China while also seeking to maintain its international standing through closer relations with the countries of the Global South.

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