National Identity and National Interests of the Russian Elites, 2012-2016

Since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, Russian-Western relations have experienced rapid deterioration, as exhibited by mounting ideological resentments, new Cold War-style rhetoric flowing from both sides, increasing geopolitical confrontation, and greater potential risks associated with future military escalation. The West's growing anxiety over Russia's revised geopolitical ambitions to redraw spheres of influence, on the one hand, and Russia's retaliatory policies, on the other, exacerbates the importance of the study of factors affecting the perception of national interests by Russian elites. This paper offers a conceptual model which links the effects of national identity and the perceptions of both the scope and vector of national interests. The concept of national identity in this study is comprised of such factors as Patriotism, Nationalism, Militarism, External, Internal and Historical Other. The conceptual model is tested using the Bayesian Structural Equation Model by drawing the data from the Survey of Russian Elites: 1993-2016.