Abstract
The paper inquires into Russia's concept of sovereignty focusing on its external dimension that consists of strategic stability and partnership. Analysing the strategic framework defined by the 2015 and 2021 National Security Strategy, the paper presents the Russian vision of and practical steps towards a reform of the global system in line with the general normative outlook on how the system should be designated and structured in the 21st century.
The official policy is characteristic of internal tension between the efforts to keep the UN-based international order emerging after World War II (i.e. maintenance of the status quo) and to reform the system with the aim to make it multipolar. Attention is also paid to the Western concept of the rules-based order introducing a division between liberal democracies and "autocracies", between allies/friends and systemic rivals/enemies.