Flavia Lucenti, REMIT researcher from Luiss Guido Carli University in Italy, has co-authored a new article for Geopolitics, discussing Russia’s promotion of its cyber norms in two organisation – the CSTO, and the UN.
Co-author Flavia Lucenti explains:
“This article is part of the Special Issue The Geopolitics of Strategic Technology Governance: Conceptual Foundations, Key Actors and Structuring Processes, edited by Thomas Christiansen, Sophie Vanhoonacker, and Ville Sinkkonen. Our study examines how Russia’s digital authoritarianism intersects with its great power ambitions in the multilateral promotion of cyber norms. Engaging with the literature on norm promotion, we show how internal and external drivers, as well as the coercive and cooperative dimensions of Russia’s cyber policies, interact. Contrary to conventional thinking, we find that while Russia’s cyber norm promotion within the CSTO has become less effective since February 2022, this is not the case at the United Nations, where the General Assembly adopted a cybersecurity treaty based on a Russian initiative in December 2024. This article was developed in dialogue with other contributors to the Special Issue through several REMIT project events, which helped refine our ideas through collective discussion and feedback. We also benefited from presenting earlier versions of the paper at various conferences, including the 2025 EISA–PEC, 2025 XI ICCEES, 2024 ISA conferences , as well as at our home institutions. We hope this research helps clarify processes of norm promotion in international relations and contributes to broader debates on strategic technology governance.”
Abstract
Since the 2010s, the Russian Federation has devoted significant resources to promoting its own interpretation of cyber norms. To this end, Russia has engaged in various cyber dialogues in different multilateral settings. The article adopts a constructivist perspective to explain Russia’s role as a norm entrepreneur, shaped by its great power identity and underlying vulnerabilities both domestically and internationally. We examine Russia’s norm-promotion strategies within the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the United Nations (UN). We argue that within the CSTO – where cultural homogenisation among members promotes a common outlook – socialisation is an effective approach for advancing cyber norms. In contrast, within the UN – where actors from diverse backgrounds converge – Russia persuades others to endorse its proposed cyber norms by clustering them together with founding international principles, such as national sovereignty, non-interference, and territorial integrity. Against this backdrop, we further inquire why Russia’s promotion of cyber norms within the UN has not been significantly affected by its malign cyber activities and its ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while these developments have partly challenged Russia’s entrepreneurship and cyber cooperation within the CSTO.
Full Citation
Lucenti, F., & Saari, S. (2025). Russia’s Multilateral Cyber Norm Promotion: The Duality of Great Power Projection and Digital Authoritarianism. Geopolitics, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2025.2601982