Foreign policy and national security issues in the modern world

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of choosing the direction of foreign policy that meets the national security interests of the state, in the aspect of studying the policy of the former post-Soviet republics. The author’s opinion is that the state is not able to conduct an independent foreign policy, and the satellite states are forced to coordinate the foreign policy with the policy of the patron state. As a result, every weak state seeks a patron in the face of a strong great-power state, sometimes at the expense of some national interests, primarily to ensure its national security. This concerns the former republics of the USSR and, above all, Ukraine, which, under the pressure of western countries, is pursuing an anti-Russian policy, contrary to the aspirations and needs of its own people. The real rational exit from the created political situation for such countries has many options, varying from rapprochement with Russia and to neutrality, which, strangely enough, require the political leadership of countries to have a certain political will.