Exploring the Impact of Church and Religious Diplomacy on Russia Foreign Policy, Case Study: Georgia and Ukraine

As not confined to lands and borders, religion is a basis for transnational identity. Therefore it is assessed as a source of soft power among neighboring and coreligionist countries. During the USSR era all policies were designed in the framework of communist ideology and dictated from Moscow to other parts of the country. But after the Collapse of the Soviet Union, the internal ties were ended. However, Russia remains an influential country in near abroad. But, the absence of communism led to an ideological vacuum in Russia's relations towards its new neighbors. Therefore Christianity is one of Russia's alternatives to eliminate the mentioned vacuum. The present article tries to answer the following questions: How is the role of church assessed in Russian foreign policy? How is the effectiveness of religious diplomacy assessed in Georgia and Ukraine? Although the role of the church in Moscow's foreign policy is interpreted as a soft power, Russian religious diplomacy was used as a hard power instrument in Ukraine and Georgia, rather than serving as a soft power. This hypothesis is examined in the context of Joseph Nye's soft power theory.