The Role of Domestic Factors in the Foreign Policy of Competitive Authoritarian Regimes: the Case of Putin's Russia.

This paper contributes to the debate on how foreign policy decisions are made and provides a variety of accounts on how Russian power “vertikal” is constructed. In order to achieve it, this work will analyze the case of Russia under the presidency of Vladimir Putin. To be more precise, it would be crucial to provide an account of the diversionary theory of war, which is considered to be inherent to authoritarian or hybrid regimes by IR scholars. This strategy was effectively used by the Kremlin in the 2000s in order to divert public attention from socio-economic problems inside the state. First of all, there are conflicts in Eastern Ukraine (Lugansk and Donbas regions) and annexation of Crimea in 2014. The second case is Russia’s involvement in the Georgia conflict, which purpose ostensibly was to defend the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and coerce Georgia to peace. However as well as in the Ukrainian crisis, the motivation of the Kremlin was two-dimensional. Firstly, it desired to distract its people’s attention from domestic problems. Secondly, Putin’s administration appeared to secure its geopolitical predominance in the CIS region once it is threatened.