Russia in global politics

The Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (SWAP), which considers one of its main tasks to create a positive image of the Russian Federation on the world stage, in 2002, as part of the Russia and Globalization project, issued a pilot issue of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.

The founders of the magazine were the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (SWAP), the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Employers) and the Izvestia Publishing House.

From November 2002 to December 2003 the magazine was published once a quarter, and since January 2004 it switched to the Foreign Affairs scheme - one issue every two months ^[10] .

The first issue was dated November-December 2002.

In his opening remarks entitled “Globalism for Everyone and Everyone,” the editor-in-chief of the journal, Fedor Lukyanov, noted that this publication belongs to the genre of the “thick” journal and its main task is not to respond quickly to current events in the world of politics, but to identify global trends politicians and subject them to analysis ^[11] .

In an interview with Izvestia on the launch of the magazine, Lukyanov said that most of the Russian elite do not understand their “Western counterparts,” since in recent years Russia has come off from international processes and is now suffering from a lack of information about Western political trends. Thus, the task of “Russia in global politics” was to provide this “high-quality analytical information online” ^[2] .

Also, on the eve of the presentation of the first issue of “Russia in Global Affairs,” Foreign Affairs publisher David Kellogg said that as part of the collaboration between the two magazines, it was agreed that several translated articles from Foreign Affairs would be printed in each issue of the Russian edition and vice versa. In addition, it was planned to post relevant information on their creative cooperation on the official websites of both media. Kellog also said that the creation of “Russia in global politics” is a significant event, since the world “has come an opportune moment to establish a direct connection between the leaders and political scientists” of Russia and the United States, and the launch of such a publication will help “better understand the goals of the policies of the two countries , outline what brings us together ” ^[12] .

The main theme of the first issue was the place of the Russian Federation in the modern world of international relations.

In particular, in an article by the RF ex-minister for CIS affairs Anatoly Adamishin “On the way to world government”, the issue of Russia's participation in the construction of a new world order was raised, which gradually replaces the former bipolar world order, which ceased to exist after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. It was argued that Russia should offer its own version of organizing an “updated scheme for managing international processes” ^[13] .

And in the article “The Burden of Global Responsibility”, ex-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Helmut Schmidt wrote that Russia plays an important role in the world due to its mineral reserves, and not military, space or nuclear potential, and noted the rapprochement between Russia and the USA, considering this the phenomenon of the victory of America, which managed to spread its influence in the East. ^[fourteen]

On January 16, 2003, a presentation of the English-language version of the journal was held, on which it was noted that the English translation of authors from the state of “Russia in global politics”, as well as translated materials from other authoritative Russian publications, would be published in English ^[6] .

At the presentation, the editor-in-chief of the journal Fedor Lukyanov stated that the English version of the publication will be useful for those foreign researchers who are professionally studying Russia and Eastern Europe, and the chairman of the editorial board of the magazine Sergey Karaganov noted that “Russia in global politics” in English will help “bridge the gap between Russia and the outside world ” ^[6] .

On February 10, 2005, on the day of the Russian diplomatic worker, a presentation of the Polish version of the magazine was held in Warsaw. The event was held at the headquarters of the Polish Press Agency (PAP) and was combined with the photo exhibition RIA Novosti "From the History of Russian Diplomacy ^[8] .

On February 21, 2006, the Czech version of the magazine “Russia in Global Affairs” was presented in Prague, which became a joint project of the Russian Embassy in the Czech Republic , the local representative office of the RIA Novosti news agency, and the Russian edition of the magazine ^[7] .

The first issue featured an article by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to the Czech Republic, Alexei Fedotov, on the same day handed this number to the country's president, Vaclav Klaus .

At the presentation, Fyodor Lukyanov noted that the Czech version of the publication will contribute to “restoring lost contacts in this part of Europe,” also saying that such initiatives are of great importance for establishing stable relations between Russia and the European Union .

Natalya Sudlenkova, editor-in-chief of the Czech version of the magazine, promised that “the lack of objective information about Russia in the Czech Republic will now be filled to some extent” ^[7] .

A year after the start of the publication of the magazine in Czech, Sudlenkova said that a wide circle of local residents showed a sincere interest in the magazine and asked to send them a printed version. The editor-in-chief also noted that the publication enjoys great authority among Czech universities ^[15] .

On February 20, 2013, in connection with a change in the composition of the founders of “Russia in Global Affairs”, the re-registration process took place. The Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (SWAP) retained its place among the former founders of the magazine, and instead of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Employers) and the Izvestia Publishing House, the founders included the Russian Council on Foreign Affairs (RIAC) and RIA Novosti ^{[5 ]} .

The editor-in-chief of the publication, Fedor Lukyanov, noted that after these rearrangements, the magazine turned out to be associated with the three “most influential Russian structures” in the field of covering international relations, and also expressed pride in the fact that the President of the INF Treaty Igor Ivanov joined the editorial board of the magazine from the very moment of its founding. ^[5] .

In an interview with the official website of the Russian Council on Foreign Affairs (INF), Fedor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, described the style of his publication as follows:

“We try to go over the edge - combine the professionalism and competence of our authors with the availability of material submission. According to the depth of analysis, of course, there are more fundamental journals, academic, departmental, but due to the specifics of the genre, they have obviously more complex texts designed for professionals. We turn not only to specialists, but also to those who are simply interested in foreign policy (it is clear that I do not mean philistine interest, we are talking about at least a minimally trained reader), wants to understand what is happening around ” ^[5] .

The chairman of the editorial board of the magazine Sergey Karaganov, comparing "Russia in global politics" with the magazine of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs " International Affairs ", expressed the opinion that "Russia in global politics" can express a wider range of ideas, since it is not related to government structures, and write in a more free style. Karaganov also said that his magazine could attract a wider audience, since it is not aimed at a narrow circle of specialists in the field of international relations, and is not purely scientific or political, but a scientific and educational character ^[16] .

The National Research University Higher School of Economics , whose professor is the editor-in-chief of “Russia in Global Affairs” Fedor Lukyanov, implemented a project in 2015 on expert ranking of Russian scientific journals, according to the results of which this journal was recognized by medium-level media ^[17] .

The study was conducted from February 2014 to January 2015 with the participation of 630 experts, who should have noted on the lists of journals that they were familiar with and who, in their opinion, deserve the title of “scientific”. After this procedure, experts filled out questionnaires evaluating the selected journals. According to the results of expert evaluations, the publications were divided into three groups: A1 - for high-level magazines of a wide profile, A2 - for highly specialized magazines of a high level, B - all medium-level magazines. “Russia in global politics” fell into group B ^[17] .

• [1] - the official website of the journal Russia in Global Affairs
• [2] - official site of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy of Russia