The Russian Foreign Ministry has been developing plans to weaken its Western adversaries, including the United States, and use the war in Ukraine to create a world order free from "American dominance."
This was reported by The Washington Post on April 17 with reference to a secret document of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
This is a classified appendix to the official and public "Concept of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation". The document is dated April 11, 2023 and was handed over to journalists by European intelligence.
In this addendum, the Russian ministry calls for an "offensive information campaign" and other measures covering the "military-political, trade-economic and information-psychological spheres" against a "coalition of unfriendly countries" led by the United States.
"We must continue to adjust our approach to relations with unfriendly states. It is important to create a mechanism for finding vulnerable points in their foreign and domestic policies in order to develop practical steps to weaken Russiaʼs opponents," the document says.
The appendix notes that the US is leading a coalition of "unfriendly countries" aimed at weakening Russia because Moscow is a "threat to Western global hegemony". It says that the outcome of Russiaʼs war in Ukraine "will largely determine the contours of the future world order."
WP journalists note that the document is the first official confirmation of what many in the Russian elite call a hybrid war against the West.