If the Sochi Olympics is a success – both technically and in terms of culture and politics – Russia’s international image will improve, with many of the old negative associations being overshadowed by positive ones. The Olympic Games provide Russia with a rare opportunity to portray itself as an open-minded, modern and respectable country.

       The beginning of this year has proved an auspicious one for Russia. There have been positive comments on its foreign policy in major Western media. It looks especially striking how a growing sense of disappointment developed with German diplomacy, which, on the one hand, lobbied for the early release of the former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky from prison and offered him a hero’s welcome on its soil while, on the other, refused to honour the U.S. whistle-blower Edward Snowden’s request for political asylum.

       In Germany, some media commentators also criticize their fellow countrymen for having failed to bring wreaths to the Russian Embassy as a gesture of compassion and solidarity with the victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Volgograd. And many claim that President Joachim Gauck’s decision to boycott the Sochi Olympics was the wrong step.

       Across the Atlantic, too, the appraisal of EU’s Russia-policy is not always positive these days. The New York Times has recently criticized the European Union over its policies of creating a rift between Moscow and Kyiv.

       Also, many Western experts now admit that Russia’s stand on the Arab Spring was more valid and realistic than that of the West, with the latter misinterpreting it as a triumph of liberal democracy in the Middle East.

       Along with the ongoing criticism for mistreating sexual minorities and human rights activists, Russia is now also receiving positive comments from some of the Western intellectual quarters for what is seen as efforts to uphold the traditions and culture of “Old Europe.” Some people in the West seem to be taking an increasingly closer look at Russia’s current conservative revolution.

       In 2014, the world community will be marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the West, this will be an occasion to celebrate freedom. But it is important to make sure that the event is seen as a precursor to a new, peaceful system of European security, a system beneficial to all constituent nations, rather than a sign of the communist Russia’s defeat.

       If the Sochi Olympics is a success – both technically and in terms of culture and politics – Russia’s international image will improve, with many of the old negative associations being overshadowed by positive ones. The Olympic Games provide Russia with a rare opportunity to portray itself as an open-minded, modern and respectable country.

       Shortly after the Olympics, Sochi will be playing host to the G8 summit, to be attended by the leaders of the United States, Germany, France and other major industrialized countries. This will once again bring Russia into the spotlight of global politics.

       If all goes as planned, the next G8 summit will focus on the situation in and around Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal of NATO troops in 2014. There is a hope that the international community could be rallied behind efforts to deal with the illegal drug trade, Islamic terrorism and social poverty in the region. Furthermore, it is expected that a common global agenda will emerge, increasing pragmatism and reducing controversy in relations between Russia and the West.

       With the large-scale amnesty President Vladimir Putin initiated at the end of last year, he managed to eclipse some of the obstacles that had been standing in the way of Russia’s rapprochement with the West. But there is a need for more confidence-building steps. One such step should be an agreement to hold trilateral talks between the EU, Russia and Ukraine on the renewal of mutual partner relations. In the West, there is a growing belief that it would be wrong to make Ukraine choose either in favour of the EU or with the Customs Union. Such trilateral negotiations could also give Russia an opportunity to express its interest in closer ties with Europe, on the basis of shared interests if not common values.

       As it hosts the Winter Olympics and the G8 summit in Sochi this year, Russia will be able to show itself off as a global player again. In the past years, the Russian leadership has been preoccupied with domestic problems, fraught with territorial breakup, economic crises, as well as other negative implications. But now the country is back as actor in the international political arena. It has already played a crucial role in resolving conflicts in the Middle East (Syria, Iran), in creating international formats such as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Union, and in building up the energy supply infrastructure for Europe and Asia. This is by no means to say that Russia should ignore domestic tasks such as economic modernization and diversification of its economy away from hydrocarbon production.

       Russia’s newly-gained international standing deserves to be welcomed. It remains to be seen, however, whether the nation will be able to continue to raise its international profile in the year ahead or not.

       This article was originally published in Russian in Известия newspaper.

       Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.