GEOPOLITICAL INSTRUMENTALISM AND IDEOLOGICAL AMBIVALENCE IN THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, THE USSR, AND THE CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Abstract

The article analyses the phenomenon of ideological instrumentalism as a defining feature of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire, the USSR, and the contemporary Russian Federation. Drawing on a recent example, the Kremlin’s de facto recognition of the “Taliban” movement through the hoisting of its flag over the Afghan embassy in Moscow, the author demonstrates the historical continuity of Russia’s willingness to cooperate with ideologically antagonistic, and at times openly hostile, regimes when- ever such cooperation aligns with imperial interests. The study traces manifestations of this policy from the Russian Empire’s alliances with the Ottoman Porte, through Soviet-fascist economic and political arrangements, and the USSR’s collaboration with anti-communist regimes in China, Spain, Egypt, and Burma, to the Kremlin’s con- temporary practices in the post-Soviet space and its promotion of the concept of the “Russian world”. Particular attention is devoted to the internal logic of this strategy, which entails the systematic abandonment, even of those population groups or political forces publicly declared to be under protection, whenever they cease to serve imperial objectives. The article concludes that Russian imperial thinking exhibits a profound structural continuity, within which ideology functions not as an intrinsic value but as a mutable instrument for the pursuit of geopolitical and economic objectives. It is based on an analysis of the works of contemporary scholars Serhii Plokhii, Timothy Snyder, Mark Galeotti, and James Calvitt Clarke III, as well as the memoirs of Soviet officials involved in the formulation and implementation of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, and specialised academic studies. Together, these sources establish a solid evidentiary foundation for the research and convincingly demonstrate that the ideological flexibility of Russian activity in international relations constitutes a significant component of a long-standing imperial behavioural model that persists regardless of changes in the state’s official ideology: from Orthodox monarchism to communism and the contemporary concept of the “Russian World”.