“Traditional Values”: Russia’s Tool of Domestic and Foreign Political Influence

Abstract

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which started in February 2022, has given rise to a number of attempts at explaining what is behind Moscow’s ideological and political grounds therefor. It can be argued that one such component, often overlooked, lies in Russia’s seemingly unique concept of “traditional values”, one that has been cultivated throughout decades of its recent history. The roots of “traditional values” might be traced back to Eurasianism and neo-Eurasianism, a school of geopolitical thought propounded, recently, by Russian ideologist Aleksandr Dugin, and the “Russian world”, an abstract amalgama of Orthodox Christian and linguistic features designed to become an all-encompassing formula for extending Russia’s geopolitical reach. Consequently, starting from mid-2000s, “traditional values” have been used by Russia as a means of presenting an alternative to the more dominant Western paradigm of global politics and way of life, externally, and as an internal political ideological tool based upon countering “destructive Western influences”, internally. A new impetus has been given to “traditional values” since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the concept being codified in several legal texts defining Russia’s foreign and national cultural policies. Due to being abstract and at the same time based upon a number of recognisable ideas, such as Orthodox Christianism or unacceptance of LGBT+, “traditional values” have found its way as an important tool of Russia’s foreign and domestic political influence. Its importance is even more highlighted by the fact that divergence of values is at the core of Ukraine-Russia years-long confrontation, the former clearly defining itself as part of a common Europe and Euro-Atlantic security domain. In this context, “traditional values” are often proposed as an alternative to “European values”, (wrongly) associated with ignorance of national cultures and “destruction” of traditional family; and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, therefore, can be looked upon as a “clash of values” as well.