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FOI-R--3990--SE
diplomatic quarrel over a physical attack on a Dutch diplomat in Moscow. 59 The
potential attractiveness of Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014 was tarnished
beforehand by public scandals involving corruption and excessive costs. The
detention of Greenpeace activists in the autumn of 2013 also created a lot of
negative press in the West.
In sum, it is clear that Russia will try to use the concept of soft power – in its
own understanding of the concept – and is willing to expend greater resources on
it. In doing so, Russia wants to have influence without being influenced. This
echoes the observation of Isaiah Berlin, who in 1946 identified that “[Russia] is
ready to take a part in international relations, but she prefers other countries to
abstain from taking an interest in her affairs: that is to say, to insulate herself
from the rest of the world without remaining isolated from it”. 60
59 Reuters (2013): ‘Dutch diplomat beaten in Moscow by unknown assailants’, 16 October,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/16/us-russia-diplomat-beatingidUSBRE99F0BA20131016.
60 Berlin, Isaiah (1946), ‘Why the Soviet Union Chooses to Insulate Itself’, The Isaiah Berlin Virtual
Library, http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/whysovunfull.pdf, p. 1.
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