Contemporary Vectors of Russian Policy in Latin America

The article seeks to answer the research question: to what extent is Russia's current policy in Latin and Caribbean America is a “return” (ibid est, a repetition of the past Soviet experience) and to what extent does it represent a qualitatively new foreign policy line. Exploring the main parameters of Russian policy in the region, the author focused on the changes taking place after the start of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine in 2022, which affected the scale and nature of cooperation between Moscow and Latin and Caribbean countries. An analysis of media pieces, official documents, and trade statistics made it possible to trace the evolution of the basic lines of Russian policy towards the Latin America and Caribbean before and after February 2022, to identify the current views of some governments and parties in the region about Russian policy, and generally determine how the Russian-Ukrainian conflict affected Moscow's contacts with Latin America and Caribbean.

The analysis shows that despite the continued interest of many Latin American and Caribbean nations in trade and economic cooperation with the Russian Federation, there are a number of objective and subjective obstacles to such cooperation, and political interaction is possible with a fairly limited group of countries, whilein general, the Russian model of relations with Latin American and Caribbean countries is not yet well-established.

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