Soft Power? : The Means and Ends of Russian Influence Abroad

This book investigates Russian mechanisms designed to influence and attract countries in the “Common Neighborhood” (Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine) and beyond. An understanding of Russian influence abroad must include the growing component of soft power, but cannot be confined to it or bound by established Western definitions of the concept. Synthesizing the findings of a Chatham House research project, Soft Power? reveals the ways Russia is attempting to develop informal networks, business links, state-corporate relations, cultural affinities, and linguistic ties with its neighbors and other politically important countries.