Sergei Lavrov reflects on Russia’s foreign policy in annual press conference

Sergei Lavrov will review the year in Russian diplomacy at an annual press conference today.

With the West engrossed in domestic challenges and a crisis on the Korean Peninsula, President Putin has capitalised to re-establish Russia as a major global power.

Having reinvigorated a new grand strategy, Russia has utilised clever soft power strategies, incorporating cyber, trade, political and financial tactics to pursue a range of objectives across multiple regions.

In Syria, for example, US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy has cost Washington legitimacy, allowing Russia to position itself a major player and key mediator in the conflict. In the EU, Putin executed sophisticated disinformation campaigns and funded outlying far-right parties to enflame anti-establishment sentiment as the bloc continues to battle the fallout of the immigration crisis.

While Mr Lavrov’s message is yet to be unveiled, Russia’s foreign policy transcript speaks for itself.

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