This study examines Russian discourses of regionalism as a source of identity construction practices for the country’s political and intellectual establishment. The overall purpose of the analysis (in its evolutionary phase known to the scholarly community by its subtitle) is to demonstrate that, contrary to some assumptions, the transition trajectory of post-Soviet Russia has not been towards a liberal democratic nation state that intended to emulate Western political and normative standards. Instead, its foreign policy discourses have been constructing Russia as a supranational community which transcends Russia’s current legally established borders.
The study undertakes a systematic survey of Russian official and semi-official (establishment-affiliated think tanks) discourse for a period of seven years between 2007 and 2013. This exercise demonstrates how Russia is being constructed as a supranational entity through its discourses of cultural and economic regionalism. These discourses associate closely with the political project of Eurasian economic integration and the “Russian world” and “Russian civilization” doctrines. Both ideologies, the geoeconomic and culturalist, have gained prominence in the post-Crimean environment. The analysis tracks down how these identitary concepts crystallized in Russia’s foreign policies discourses beginning from Putin’s second term in power.