The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that the new Russian foreign policy concept approved by Putin on Friday "likely aims to support the Kremlin’s attempts to promote a potential anti-Western coalition."
It observed that the new foreign policy concept "paints the West as an anti-Russian and internationally destabilizing force to a far greater extent than Russia’s previous 2016 Foreign Policy Concept and explicitly states that the US and its 'satellites' have unleashed a hybrid war aimed at weakening Russia."
The new document also "heavily stresses Russia's goal of creating a multipolar world order and subordinates under that goal Russia’s broad foreign policy objectives, which include ending the United States’ supposed dominance in world affairs," the Washington-based think tank said.
"The document asserts that most of humanity is interested in constructive relations with Russia and that a desired multi-polar world will give opportunities to non-Western world powers and regional leading countries," the ISW said in its latest analysis of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.
It assessed that the Kremlin decided to release the new foreign policy concept "on the eve of assuming the presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in order to set informational conditions for future rhetorical efforts at the UN aimed at forming an anti-Western coalition."
The ISW warned that Russia "will likely weaponize its presidency" of the UN Security Council "as a method of Russian power projection."
Saturday is day 402 of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, understandingwar.org