PONARS Policy Memo 262 - Russian Diplomacy in the 21st Century Multilateralism Put to Work

In a summer 2002 interview, Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov outlined some of the recent achievements of Russian diplomacy and suggested that well–thought out foreign policy would yield the goals Russia has set. According to Ivanov, "If you look at the activeness of the last few months, you see, after all, not some sort of spontaneous measures, but the implementation of the principles that were ratified by the president two years ago in the foreign policy concept blueprint. The essence of this is that the limited resources at the country's disposal should promote as much as possible the domestic reforms that are being carried out.”