ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the rise of Russia’s exceptionalism in human rights. These rights, enshrined in the 1993 Russian Constitution, still formally constitute the basis of the Russian legal order. However, over the years the interpretation of human rights changed drastically. Initially, human rights were accepted as universal liberal standards that Russia pledged to integrate into its legal system. This project began to be implemented in the 1990s but stalled in the early 2000s. In these years, human rights were taken to reflect Russia’s cultural particularities and its defence of its uniqueness from Western ‘moral imperialism’. Later, new geopolitical tensions with the West revealed the new role of human rights in Russia’s foreign policy – to invoke Russia’s responsibility to protect these rights as a justification for its military campaigns around the world. This latest interpretation shows striking parallels with the messianism characteristic of Russian political philosophy.
