The Kremlin is relying on a highly adaptable toolkit to chip away at the liberal international order and to capitalize on the West’s inability to come up with a unified strategy to respond, according to a new report. Russia’s agenda is straightforward: to assert its influence at the expense of Washington and the rules-based international system, notes a Carnegie analysis, The Return of Global Russia:
The Kremlin’s toolkit includes: leveraging economic and business ties, exerting political influence, harnessing the information space, and forging or deepening military ties with key countries. Where the United States and its allies have pulled back or failed to deliver, Russia has eagerly stepped in.
The report examines the why and the how of the Kremlin’s more assertive foreign policy, according to William J. Burns (right), president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy.
For example, the Kremlin is now a key player in the dramatic events unfolding in Venezuela, the report adds:
Amid an increasingly desperate economic and humanitarian situation and sharpening tensions between Caracas and Washington, Moscow is helping prop up the beleaguered government of President Nicolás Maduro. In exchange, Russia is acquiring valuable assets at knockdown prices.
