Russia's new foreign policy concept to focus more on West

The new edition of the Foreign Policy Concept will significantly alter Russia's strategy for dealing with the West, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Venediktov told TASS.

He noted that at the moment, the document "is being updated taking into consideration numerous factors". "Of course, the Foreign Policy Concept will carefully consider all aspects of the evolving international situation in recent months, and our approaches to interaction with various players and regions will be clarified. A significant change will be made to our approaches to the collective West," Venediktov said.

He also discussed the potential timeframe of the document's approval. According to him, although there isn't yet a final edition, the project is quickly nearing its conclusion.

"An updated version of the concept may be presented to the Security Council by the end of the year, but this does not mean its automatic approval. Therefore, realistically, the document should be expected in the first half of 2023," Venediktov explained.

He drew attention to the fact that "everything is tied to the National Security Strategy" in the system of strategic planning documents. "Its new version was adopted last year, and it had several significant changes that also need to be considered. The whole process is quite difficult in this respect," Venediktov said.