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While the war in Ukraine undoubtedly boosted Ukrainian national identification and prompted rapid alienation from Russia, another salient identity question prominent since Ukraine's independence has been the country's belonging to Europe, often challenged by the alternatives of Eurasian and Slavic supranational identities. This article explores different identity constructions in the Ukrainian national mass media and their interpretation of the war with Russia from the dawn of the conflict in 2014 to 2015. Respectively, the article maps immediate developments in the content and contestation of the European identity discourse as the crisis hits these identity constructions. This study found that the war has dramatically strengthened the influence of the identity construction that fully embraced Europeanness while increasingly muting its alternatives. In contrast, identity content was less prone to change; this significant decrease in contestation evidences the robust effect of 'big-bang' events in identity discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Soviet Union's (USSR) collapse, Russia's domestic and foreign policies have changed. With the loss of "superpower" status, Russians struggled to define their "national identity," which influenced the country's new foreign policy. This struggle affected Russia's ties with its sovereign neighbours, the former Soviet states termed the "Near Abroad" (blizhnee zarubezhe). The struggle specifically led to a series of territorial, leadership, economic, diaspora, and military conflicts with some countries in the Near-Abroad. The question of the legitimacy of territories and borders in Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan), Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Georgia), the Trans-Dniester area (Moldova), and Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk areas of Ukraine is largely a result of the struggle. This paper discusses the factors affecting Russian domestic and foreign policy towards the Near-Abroad nations, which have influenced Russia's behaviour in contemporary international politics. Firstly, this essay analysed Russia's identity crisis and foreign strategy. The effect of Marxism-Leninism on Soviet foreign policy and the new Russian State was also discussed. This paper also analysed Vladimir Putin's pragmatic strategy in the Near-Abroad, focusing on Ukraine. This paper submits that Russia's determination to see the Near-Abroad states as largely within its sphere of influence and geopolitical interests hinders the establishment of equal ties with these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines Turkey's western identity constructed during the early republican era following the westernization movements in Turkey that started more than 200 years ago, the identity crisis occurred in Turkey with its western identity losing power after the cold war and its reflections on Turkish-Russian relations. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that Turkey, a 'torn country' according to Huntington's popular definition, pragmatically built interest-based relations with Russia, another torn country seen considered as an outsider by the West, trying to reconstruct its identity owing to domestic dynamics after facing with the identity crisis. This study demonstrates that Turkey developed its relations with Russia as a regional power by reading Turkish-Russian relations through the lenses of Huntington's torn state syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the 2020 amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation (1993), the process of their adoption, and their impact on the development of constitutionalism in Russia. The constitutional amendments in question were initiated by the President of Russia at the beginning of 2020, were adopted with urgency by the Russian Parliament, were subsequently approved by the “all-Russian vote”, and finally entered into force on 4 July 2020. They not only changed the content of the Russian Constitution, but also altered constitutional values, and have led to a crisis in the identity of the Russian Constitution. These constitutional amendments serve the interests of the authoritarian state and demonstrate the fate of the constitution, where the role of supreme law has been lost. While considering the erroneous path of adopting the 2020 constitutional amend- ments, this article is devoted to an analysis of the opinion set out in the respective conclu- sion of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which assessed the process under discussion and the content of the proposed constitutional amendments by inter- preting the provisions of the Russian Constitution. This opinion created preconditions for the entry into force of the amendments to the Constitution. Thus, the main attention in the article is focused, in particular, on the assessment given by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation rather than the content of the constitutional amendments. The 2020 amendments to the Russian Constitution can be designated to certain groups, concerning: the institution of the President and the strengthening of his powers; the powers of other state authorities; the composition and powers of the Constitutional Court; provisions on the development of social guarantees; family life; ideological pro- visions; and the relationship between constitutional law and international law. Thus, the scope and the content of the changes suggests that these amendments constitute not a mere alteration of individual constitutional provisions, but the emergence of new autonomous constitutional content in conflict not only with the text, but also with the spirit of the former Russian Constitution. The Constitutional Court did not make any appraisal of the fact that the proposed amendments to the Constitution fundamentally disrupt the framework of the Constitution itself. The 2020 amendments to the Russian Constitution give rise to many important constitutional questions: where the limits to formal constitutional amendments lie, and whether the constitution can protect itself against foreign matter that apparently destroys its original constitutional ideas and denies the spirit of the constitution. Neither the conclusion given by the Russian Constitutional Court, nor the “all-Russian vote” car- ried out on 1 July 2020 assuage these doubts. Hence, this article investigates problems related, inter alia, to the nature of consti- tutional amendments and their destructive role, the role of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the process of amending the Constitution, and the political character of such an institution in an authoritarian state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Global Failed? The West between Arrogance and Self-Hatred" by Susanne Schröter discusses the ambivalence, deep insecurity, and identity crisis of the West. The author argues that despite its freedom, prosperity, and social achievements, the West is at risk of failure. This is due to a combination of hubris and self-hatred, which leads to the rise of dictators and the elimination of democratic achievements. The author analyzes, among other things, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the illusions of German foreign policy regarding Russia, and the challenges posed by Islamism. The book covers a range of controversial topics and encourages reflection. [Extracted from the article]