by Chris York
April 17, 2024
The Kyiv Independent
A secret Kremlin foreign policy document calls for Russia to leverage the war in Ukraine and exploit weaknesses in “unfriendly states” in order to forge a new global order in which the U.S. no longer plays a leading role, the Washington Post reported on April 17.
According to the paper, the document is a classified addendum to a public document titled “Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation” and was obtained via a European intelligence service.
The secret part of the document calls for an “offensive information campaign” covering multiple spheres, including “the military-political, economic and trade, and informational psychological.” against what the Kremlin perceives as a “coalition of unfriendly countries” led by the U.S.
“We need to continue adjusting our approach to relations with unfriendly states,” it reads, adding: “It’s important to create a mechanism for finding the vulnerable points of their external and internal policies with the aim of developing practical steps to weaken Russia’s opponents.”
The document, dated April 11, 2023, says the outcome of the war in Ukraine will “to a great degree determine the outlines of the future world order.”
Despite years of increasing bellicosity from the Kremlin towards the West – including nuclear threats – the document also says Russia “does not consider itself an enemy of the West, and has no ill intentions toward it.”
Just last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with state-controlled media that he is “ready” to launch nuclear weapons if Western countries, in particular the U.S., commit troops to Ukraine.