The sources of Russian conduct

COMMENTARY / World

The sources of Russian conduct

From Stalin to Gorbachev, Soviet leaders shared Putin’s desire for ‘great power’ prestige

Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine, much like those of past Soviet leaders, stem from a desire to be recognized as a global power and from perceived Western threats. | Sputnik / Kremlin / via REUTERS

By Nina L. Khrushcheva
Project Syndicate

Oct 7, 2024

MOSCOW – This is not strictly a review of Sergey Radchenko’s recent book, “To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power.” Rather, it is an invitation to find in the book a fresh take on the sources of Russian foreign policy conduct, in line with the American diplomat George F. Kennan’s famous 1947 assessment of the “sources of Soviet conduct.”

By focusing on the logic driving Soviet leaders’ foreign policy decisions, Radchenko hopes to shed light on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s often-bloody quest to reclaim Russia’s status as a great power on par with the United States.

From Josef Stalin to Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leaders shared Putin’s desire for “great power” prestige. Leonid Brezhnev, who succeeded Nikita Khrushchev in 1964, envisioned a world “co-managed” by a Soviet Union and U.S. that respected each other as “equals.” But while the U.S. agreed to an equal relationship on paper, Radchenko explains, the Soviets felt as though they had been “forced into a humiliating position of delinquents, being presently taught by someone who (in all truth) was also not beyond reproach.”