Paradoxes in the Perception of Contemporary Russia
Paradoxes in the Perception of Contemporary Russia

Summary/Abstract: The article shows how contemporary Russia is perceived through the prism of certain antinomies and paradoxes. These concern the self-definition of Russia in the world, its civilizational-geopolitical identification, its relative weakness despite being a nuclear raw materials power, its attempts to create a new state ideology (“sovereign democracy”) colored with imperial and nationalist sentiments, and the need for Russia to give up on defining its vital interests in terms of “omnipresence” in the world as this clashes with internal imperatives, whose essence lies in economic growth and modernization. The complexity of emerging processes in Russia makes it a challenge to get to know the country better and build objective images of it.

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