The Objective and the Subjective in the UK Anti-Russian Policy

The article raises the problem of the influence of objective factors on the positions of the national political elite using the example of the UK foreign policy towards Russia. Methodology is based on Soviet and Russian theoretical developments on the relationship between the objective and the subjective in international relations. Using a systemic historical approach and applied political economic analysis, the author identified and studied objective factors such as structural conditions of the world economy and international relations, the position of the UK in them, reflected in the subjective approaches of the party and political elites in Britain. Among them are: foreign economic, foreign policy, socio-economic and military-economic factors. Party political approaches in the context of the 2024 UK parliamentary elections were studied using qualitative content analysis. A comparison is made between the parties’ approaches to interaction with Russia, and the common and the different are highlighted. It is substantiated that the above-mentioned objective factors influence the political space of the UK within which party leaderships formulate their strategies. They are the basis for the UK anti-Russian policy, a long-term basis that mediated the formation of the corresponding foreign policy identity of the British political elites. The research showed that these factors mediated the gradual degradation of Russian-British relations since the mid-2000s. The conclusion is that every British government in the medium term, and probably in the long term, will pursue an anti-Russian policy, but its methods and intensity may differ depending on a particular party ideology.