Russia in Global Affairs

Law does not require the impossible from a person, and a person does not expect tricks from the legal system. Values have their own logic, which is not always clear to a person who has decided to speak out for all the good and against all the bad. Both law and values mobilize a person, but they do it differently.

The desire to replay the Cold War is an attempt to reverse the wheel of history.

The pandemic has ruined one of the main factors that has long cemented modern society: the unity of wealth, health, comfort, enlightenment, and security.

The living body is what matters. The bodies make up a population, a nation, citizenry that in most modern countries have been declared the bearers of sovereignty and the inalienable source of power.

“Impartiality,” “realism,” a stop to meaningless rhetoric, and a business-like approach to world politics are demands for an honest political language, which, in Weber’s scheme of things, is to be accepted by opponents so as not to aggravate relations or make the situation worse.

Every legitimacy dispute revolves around a special combination of the internal and the external. International or external legitimacy is a resource for self-assertion in the global community and it is also a resource for those who wish to challenge the state system.

References to international law are an important part of Russia’s official rhetoric. While criticizing other countries for violating international law, Russia’s leaders declare that Russia respects international law, protects it, and upholds its principles. However, a closer look at statements by top leaders reveal some changes not so much in their content as in their tone.