Russia in International Organizations: The Shift from Defence to Offence

Abstract

When the Russian Federation became an independent state in December 1991, it inherited many of the great power attributes of the Soviet Union in international organizations, but it lacked both the capacity and the will to compete with the Western powers for global influence. It was conscious of its relative weakness in international relations and most concerned to ensure that it did not get any weaker and preserved as much as it could of its influence in the former Soviet space. Its superior formal status in certain international bodies was of little practical importance. But as Russia has grown stronger, it has become less attached to the principle of the sovereign equality of states (enshrined in the UN Charter) and more inclined to a Soviet and pre-Soviet view of the primacy of great powers in their spheres of influence (with Russia, of course, as one of the great powers).