Sovereignty as a form and condition for existence of an independent state

From a formal point of view, sovereignty is the natural state of any state recognized by the international community. Sovereignty or independence entitles the state to make its own decisions on domestic and foreign policy. Meanwhile, in the modern world there are a lot of states that remain formally sovereign, but do not have the opportunity to conduct their own independent policies and are forced to coordinate their decisions with stronger partners, and even completely obey the external directives. In this article the author aims to examine the notion of sovereignty and its realization in the history of the Russian state. His reasoning begins with a curious fact from the life of modern Russia. President Vladimir Putin touched on the theme of sovereignty four times in his speeches in a short space of time - between June and July 2017, affirming and confirming, a well-known fact, it would seem, that Russia is a sovereign country. Why, then, does the head of the state pays so much attention to this issue? The question certainly requires clarification. The researcher builds his reasoning on the analysis of the two examples from the history of the Russian state, when it lost its sovereignty - during the Tatar-Mongol yoke and during the Great Troubles. The urgency of the topic is reconfirmed by the aggravation of the international situation caused by US actions, which are violating the sovereignty and independence of a number of states, and the practice of military displacement of the legitimate heads of states, unwanted by the superpower. For Russia, which has experienced the loss of sovereignty in the past, the topic is doubly relevant: it is necessary to take such measures that would prevent any attempts to disrupt the independence of its foreign and domestic policies.