Brazilian diplomacy and Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine

The significance of the research topic is predetermined by the importance of the problem of building relations between the Russian Federation and the countries of the Global South during the period of aggravation of the geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West, especially after the start of a Special Military Operation in Ukraine (SMO) in February 2022. The research endeavors to determine the nature of Brazil’s policy towards Russia, Ukraine and the SMO, and to identify which factors influenced this policy in 2022-2024. Based on the analysis of UN documents, parliamentary materials and trade and economic statistics, the author comes to conclusion that an official stance of the president (Planalto), regardless of political and ideological orientation of whoever held the office (right-wing populist J. Bolsonaro or left-centrist L.I. Lula da Silva), was seemingly neutral, equidistant from either side of the conflict, but in fact, rather pro-Russian, as evidenced primarily by an obvious unwillingness to blame Moscow for the Ukrainian crisis. The balance of information indicates that the Planalto’s caution in developing Brazil’s policy towards the SMO was caused, on the one hand, by strong pressure from the pro-Ukrainian members of the National Congress and its unwillingness to aggravate relations with the West, and, on the other, by Brazil’s economic dependence on the Russian Federation, primarily on the supply of mineral fertilizers, of great importance to Brazil’s agribusiness. Thus, unlike a number of Western researchers, the author infers that the leading role in determining Brazil’s position towards the events in Ukraine and, in general, to the geopolitical confrontation between the Russian Federation and the West was played by internal (political and economic), and not foreign policy factors.