Multilateralism in Russian Foreign Policy: Some Tentative Evaluations

Russia's pursuit of multilateral approach has dual characteristics. As a medium-sized great power in world politics, Russia tends to perform rhetorically as a proponent of the kind of multilateralism embodied in the United Nations. On the other hand, Russia has revealed stronger ambitions to assert itself as a regional power in its immediate neighborhood. Here, it tends to act either unilaterally or as an 'instrumental multilateralist', predominantly making use of regional institutions to legitimize its actions. In this context, Russia can be seen as both an instrumental and a principled multilateralist, in other words, multilateralism in Russian foreign policy is both a tool and a value.