Russia in the modern world: the potential of soft power

The article is devoted to a comprehensive description of the conceptual, institutional and technological aspects of the Russian strategy for building up and using so-called soft power. The authors proceed from the fact that the future of Russia as a world power depends significantly on its ability to generate and increase impulses of soft power. The article describes the dynamics of the process of reformatting Russia's soft power potential, starting from the collapse of the USSR in 1991 to the present day. The authors point out that the current state of the Russian Federation, being a successor state of the USSR, inherited the main components of the latter’s soft power, including its authority in the field of science and culture, the status of one of the founders of the UN, an extensive network of connections in the intellectual and political elites of various countries etc. However, the changes that took place in the country in the 1990s significantly influenced the image of Russia in the perception of the population of other countries, as well as the Russians themselves. The article demonstrates that, contrary to the provisions and conclusions arising from the concept of soft power developed by the American political theorist J. Nay, the policy of rapprochement with the “civilised world” carried out in the 1990s did not lead to an increase in Russia’s influence, but rather had the opposite effect. In fact, this influence has dropped to historic lows. And only from the beginning of the 2000s, in parallel with the strengthening of the political foundations of Russian statehood, the situation began to change for the better, and the process of restoring those factors of “soft” influence that Russia could use began. The article provides a detailed overview of the main components of this process; based on empirical data, it characterises the relationship between positive and negative opinions about Russia in different countries and on different continents. The authors also provide recommendations for improving the strategy for the formation and use of soft power in modern Russia. In particular, in this regard, the authors of the article draw attention to the key importance of a comprehensive elaboration of images of the future and the conceptual foundations of the theory of socio-historical development, corresponding to the multifaceted challenges of the 21st century.