On 5 September, President Vladimir Putin signed into law a decree on “a humanitarian policy of the Russian Federation abroad”. The document does not represent a new foreign policy doctrine, although this was implied by several international media outlets.

Russian cultural policy abroad will continue to describe Russia as a separate civilization, distinct from other regions and countries. Western states are described as the main threat to Russian culture and therefore Russian statehood. One implication of this line of reasoning is that cooperation between Russian and Western cultural and educational institutions will be inevitably limited.

A key task is to promote and defend the foundations of Russian “traditional values”, in particular Russian family values, deemed to be threatened by “neo-liberal governments” (i.e., the West). Russia presents itself as the defender of “morality”, “humanism” and “spirituality”.

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