Samuel Ramani writes on Russia as the ‘alternative peacemaker’ to the United States

Samuel Ramani has written articles for the Washington Post (26 July), Al-Monitor (26 July) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (6 August) on whether Russia is gearing its foreign policy towards being seen as a better international peacemaker than the United States of America.

In the Washington Post Samuel writes, “You can see this in the Russian state media’s enthusiastic and oft-repeated coverage every time an international leader praises, however slightly, Moscow’s involvement in the North Korean crisis.”

He goes on to add, “All that is aimed at the Russian public — and shows that Kremlin elites pay a great deal of attention to how their citizens perceive Russia’s role in the world. The importance of public opinion in shaping Russian foreign policy is also revealed through analyzing polling data. The Levada Center’s survey revealed that in 2011, 47 percent of Russians saw their nation as a great power. By 2016, as Russia has gotten increasingly involved in regional conflicts, that number had jumped to 64 percent.”

Samuel Ramani is a Doctoral Candidate in International Relations.