Individual access to implementing foreign policy: A perspective from Russian constitutional law

Abstract

The role of civil society in implementing Russia’s foreign agreements belongs to the most relevant themes of this article. Various avenues for such participation are studied on the basis of disparate provisions of Russian political documents, the decrees of the public authorities. According to the 2013 Concept of External Policy, Russia is increasingly relying on “soft power” in promoting its foreign political course, exemplified hereby by Nordic-Russian co-operation. Insofar as the mechanisms of “soft power” are entrenched in civil society, this article focuses on legal norms empowering NGOs, universities, and individuals to engage in implementing international agreements ( on the example of Nordic-Russian agreements). The author is preoccupied with several issues: How Russian legal thought conceptualizes Russia’s “soft power” approach with respect to the Nordic states? What are the contents of this approach? What opportunities are provided for Russian NGOs, universities, and firms in order to engage in implementing “soft power” within the frames of Nordic-Russian agreements on co-operation? How (if at all) Russian law empowers civil society to collaborate with the state in implementing its “soft power” policies?.