Hcss report

international or regional organizations,
including the UN, whose mechanisms allow enough space for assertive maneuvering 
and are very much used by Russia for this purpose; the OSCE, as Russia’s dominating 
security interests are focused on security; and much less frequently, the BRICS.
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
140,000
160,000
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

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HCSS REPORT
29
The
 geographical focus
of Russian foreign policy is mostly regional, slightly increasing 
over time. One piece of evidence is that ‘region’ (1410) and ‘regional’ (1203) score 
much higher than ‘world’ (731) and ‘global’ (729). This may nuance the idea that Russia 
would have ambitions for global domination.
There are frequent mentions of areas in which Russia tends to express assertiveness, 
and most have increased over time. The 
‘security’
sphere remains the core area 
where Russian foreign policy displays the most assertive features. It indeed scores 
first (‘security’ – 2755; ‘terrorism’ – 916; ‘threat’ – 828; ‘nuclear’ – 781; ‘military’ – 774; 
‘weapons’ – 647); followed by an
 economic theme
(‘economic’ – 1574, ‘financial’ – 
743, ‘economy’ 669) and a ‘legal’ domain (790). 
Finally, the results highlight a definite 
cooperative undercurrent
– in line with the 
positive assertiveness in coding. Unsurprisingly, official texts suggest that Russia is 
playing according to international rules (‘cooperation’ – 2071, ‘negotiate’ – 1487, 
‘agreements’ – 1347, ‘peace’ – 1107), rather than emphasizing conflict (‘fight’ – 958, 
‘conflict’ – 605; ‘responsibility’ – 516, ‘against’ – 496, ‘demand’ – 489). Yet there is no 
clear prevalence of a particular cooperation mode over time, and little to suggest that 
there have been significant shifts in this respect. This may indicate that Russia’s 
assertiveness is implemented both through calls for cooperation and accusations, 
through a balanced mix of ‘peace’ and ‘fight’. One cannot state that Russia is either 
cooperation-oriented, or aggressively positioned within the international arena. 
Russian diplomacy seems to pragmatically mix wording in official documents 
according to specific circumstances.