A former student at Russia’s elite school for diplomats reveals how the country’s foreign service is shaped, in an article posted in the independent Russian news outlet The Moscow Times.
Inna Bondarenko attended the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), which she calls the “Hogwarts for the Russian foreign-policy elite.” She now warns the West about how Russian diplomats think and operate.
— To understand Russian diplomacy, you must understand how Russian diplomats are formed. And that means understanding MGIMO, Bondarenko says.
Russia must remain a great power
She describes an education steeped in great-power thinking and distrust of the West:
— From day one we were taught that Russia is and must remain a great power. Not just one country among many, but a pole in a multipolar world. A country destined to challenge the West, she writes.
Bondarenko says students were drilled in “offensive realism”—the idea that power is truth and that “spheres of influence” are gospel.
— We were taught to quote international law while violating its spirit, to defend norms even as we tore them down, and to speak of peace even as we justified wars, she says.
A warning to the West
— This is not just personal reasoning. It is a warning to Western decision-makers, Bondarenko emphasizes.
She believes the West must grasp the “psychological architecture” of Russian diplomacy in order to negotiate effectively:
— Dialogue will not succeed on liberal premises—it must be grounded in realism, deterrence, and strategic clarity.
— Russia’s lies do not change the truth
A 2023 report from the U.S. Department State highlighted five of of the Kremlins main narratives that it used to justify the war on Ukraine.
- That Russia was “encircled” by NATO before the invasion in February 2022.
- That Ukraine is committing genocide in the Donbas region.
- That the Ukrainian government needs “denazification.”
- That Russia must “desatanize” Ukraine to restore traditional values.
- That Russia must fight in Ukraine to defend its sovereignty against the West.
The report shows how the Kremlin has continually shifted its false narratives to distract from its military defeats and political isolation.
— Russia’s lies do not change the truth. The Kremlin chose to start this war, and the Kremlin can choose to end it, the report states.
— It is obvious that any missiles and artillery of Russia will not succeed in breaking our unity and knocking us off our path. And it should be equally obvious that Ukrainian unity cannot be broken by lies or intimidation, fake information or conspiracy theories, said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July 2022.