Listening to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speeches about the international order that Russia is pursuing, we come back to the concept of the Concert of Europe: a system in which certain countries have spheres of influence.
This architecture allows some privileged countries to encourage, coerce, persuade and force those within their sphere of influence to make foreign and domestic policy choices that align with the preferences and priorities of the dominant power.
Since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin has spoken extensively about the importance of “indivisible security,” a concept that embodies the sphere of influence logic. According to the Kremlin, indivisible security means that one country’s security cannot come at the expense of another.
