![ORCID Icon]({"type":"image","src":"/templates/jsp/_style2/_tandf/images/orcid.svg"} "ORCID Icon"){kind=small}
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0172-118X
![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Empirical studies in democracies have revealed some degree of causal relationship between public opinion and foreign policy. A look at the relationship between the evolution of Russian foreign policy priorities, as evidenced in the Foreign Policy Concepts (2000, 2008, 2013 and 2016), and public opinion regarding foreign policy measured from 1997 to 2018 shows significant shifts in perceptions of the nation’s international image. The amity/enmity feelings towards others can be explained as responses to key international events, endorsing the thesis of a rational and reactive public. Overall, public opinion and the official policy line in Russia move in the same direction.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the valuable comments made by Richard Eichenberg, Pierangelo Isernia, Francesco Olmastroni, Thomas Scotto and other participants of the ECPR Joint Sessions Workshop on “Public opinion, foreign policy and the use of force in turbulent times”, Nottingham, in April 2017. Additionally, this article would not have appeared without the assistance of Ilya Lokshin, Associate Professor at the HSE School of Politics and Governance, Moscow.