Patriotism as a Moral Position of the Political Elite in Modern Russia

The current political conditions dictate a necessity to revise the public opinion of Russia’s role in the world. The situation generatedby the Ukrainian events has caused patriotic feelings in the Russian society. These feelings combined with the current prospect ofmutual relations between Russia and other countries have set the scene for reorientation of both the society and the Russian statemachinery to protection of national interests. A key role in this process belongs to the Russian political elite. At this stage, the issueof comprehension and assimilation of moral bearings of patriotism by the Russian establishment is the issue of transformationof the elite. Over the recent twenty-five years, the generation of those who came to power on the wave of perestroika was largelyreplaced by those who are focused not on work to the benefit of a particular leader, but on implementation of the national idea.However, this process is going on, and now we can speak about nationalisation of the socio-political, as well as economic, elite. Thetheses presented show how this process is developing in the light of the current situation in the foreign policy. We analyse the possibilityof construction of a Russia-centric geopolitical project of development of the state in the conditions of redirection of economyfrom the West to the East. In particular, we show how the issue of geopolitical choice becomes an axiological issue for the domesticelite. We bring up an issue of a necessity to develop a new type of patriotism that would fully meet the present challenges if includednot only the idea of love for the Motherland but also service to it.The current political conditions dictate a necessity to revise the public opinion of Russia’s role in the world. The situation generatedby the Ukrainian events has caused patriotic feelings in the Russian society. These feelings combined with the current prospect ofmutual relations between Russia and other countries have set the scene for reorientation of both the society and the Russian statemachinery to protection of national interests. A key role in this process belongs to the Russian political elite. At this stage, the issueof comprehension and assimilation of moral bearings of patriotism by the Russian establishment is the issue of transformationof the elite. Over the recent twenty-five years, the generation of those who came to power on the wave of perestroika was largelyreplaced by those who are focused not on work to the benefit of a particular leader, but on implementation of the national idea.However, this process is going on, and now we can speak about nationalization of the socio-political, as well as economic, elite. Thispaper is to analyze how this process is developing in the light of the current situation in the foreign policy.