Hanna Notte on Putin's Global Campaign to Defeat the West | Russian Roulette

Russia’s foreign policy has shifted toward a war-driven, opportunistic strategy aimed at outlasting the West through global influence campaigns. While the Kremlin frames its actions as an anti-neo-colonial struggle to appeal to the Global South, this narrative serves as a negative mobilization tool rather than a coherent grand strategy. Russia’s influence in regions like Africa and the Middle East relies heavily on security provision and historical gratitude for Soviet-era support, even as its actual economic investment remains negligible. Despite the country’s growing dependence on China and structural domestic decline, the Russian leadership maintains a belief in its own endurance, or *stoikost*. This disconnect between Russia's limited power and its expansive imperial ambitions creates a volatile environment, driving the Kremlin to intensify hybrid threats and nuclear intimidation to maintain its status as a global power.