section_path: Government and politics/Foreign relations
section_name: Foreign relations
paragraph_text: Foreign relations
  
  Russia has the world's sixth-largest diplomatic network as of 2024. It maintains diplomatic relations with 187 United Nations member states, two partially-recognised states, and two United Nations observer states, along with 143 embassies. Russia is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It is generally described as a great power, though it has been questioned whether it can retain this status. Russia is also a former superpower as the leading constituent of the former Soviet Union. and the legal successor to Soviet foreign policies. It is a member of the G20, the OSCE, and the APEC —and the leading member of organisations such as the CIS, the EAEU, the CSTO, and the SCO. Russia was also a member of the G8 (now the G7) and part of the Council of Europe before its expulsion from the two groups in 2014 and 2022, respectively.
  
  Russia maintains close relations with neighbouring Belarus, which is a part of the Union State, a supranational confederation of the two states. Serbia has been a historically close ally of Russia, as both countries share a strong mutual cultural, ethnic, and religious affinity. From the 21st century, relations between Russia and China have significantly strengthened bilaterally and economically due to shared political interests. India is the largest customer of Russian military equipment, and the two countries share a strong strategic and diplomatic relationship since the Soviet era. Russia wields great political influence across the geopolitically important South Caucasus and Central Asia, and the two regions have been described as being part of Russia's "backyard" or "near abroad".
  
  Russia shares a complex strategic, energy, and defence relationship with Turkey. It maintains cordial relations with Iran, as it is a strategic and economic ally. Russia has also significantly developed its relations with North Korea following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with increased defence co-operation. At the same time, its relations with neighbouring Ukraine and the Western world—specifically the United States and the collective countries of the European Union and NATO —have collapsed.
  
  In the 21st century, Russia has pursued an aggressive foreign policy aimed at securing regional dominance in Europe and increasing its international influence, as well as increasing domestic support for the government. It has initiated military interventions in the post-Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine, as well as in Syria during its prolonged civil war in a bid to increase its influence in the Middle East. Russia has also increasingly pushed to expand its influence across the Arctic, the Asia–Pacific, Africa and Latin America. Two-thirds of the world's population, specifically the developing countries of the Global South, are either neutral or leaning towards Russia politically. Russia has also continued using subversive tactics to increase perceptions of its geopolitical power in its rival countries, including cyberwarfare, disinformation campaigns, sabotage attacks, assassination attempts, airspace violations, electoral interferences, and nuclear saber-rattling.