Given that Russian identity is multifaceted, multidimensional, and vast, it would be naïve to attempt a full examination of Russian identity in one short chapter.
Identity is a dynamic process of construction and contestation, rather than a static thing.
Nonetheless, despite the diversity of nation-states, there seems to be agreement on fundamental narratives that dominate a country's biographical discourse.
One of them, in Russia's instance, is its sense of itself as a major power (Adomeit 1995; Hopf 2002; Kanet 2007; Neumann 2008; Mankoff 2009).
One of the key characteristics of Russia's identity and feeling of ontological stability is its self-perception as a great power — a vital status position for the nation.
Indeed, throughout the country's history, the great power narrative connects ontological2 and physical security.
Russia's identity and feeling of ontological security were historically built in reaction to its physical security requirements.
With time, Russia's sense of identity was rooted in the frequent employment of this biographical story of tremendous strength.
Because of this unconscious ontological understanding on the part of Russian leaders, meeting physical security demands became conditional on the country's biographical narrative of great power survival.
Such a reliance creates a "ontological trap" that may stifle Russia's foreign policy decisions and jeopardize its physical security.
Putin's foreign policy posture, for example, is less a response to external demands and more a repeating pattern driven by internal variables - imbedded routines of the country's ontological security, as Stephen Kotkin (2016) points out.
The creation of an agent's ontological security has two crucial features.
The first are the events that shape the agent's ontological understanding as it develops throughout its formative years.
The second factor is the degree to which these events have become routine.
Through habit and experience, this ontological knowledge becomes more established over time, creating predictability and allowing agents to avoid worry about the unexpected.
These experiences become increasingly ingrained in the agent's ontological security as they become more routine, and agents use them less consciously while making judgments as a result.
As a result, the fledgling Russian state's experiences defending its physical security demands and projecting power provided a foundation for its ontological self-awareness as a powerful force capable of projecting influence (great power).
Furthermore, these experiences had to be implanted via frequent usage in order to become the foundation of the country's ontological security.
Routineization of this kind is subjective and susceptible to social construction.
What is especially essential is that whomever is in charge of a polity's collective memory determines such social construction and routinization.
Because memory is very selective, the custodian decides which experiences should be routineized further (Prizel 1998).
As a result, the custodian has the capacity and authority to either deepen or undermine the usage of ontological practices via neglect (Ledoux 2003; Burton 2009).
Several historical variables must be examined in order to explain how Russia has navigated its foreign policy via an ontological security lens.
An overview of the role of geography in influencing the type of Russia's physical security challenges, both economic and geopolitical, is presented at the outset.
Following that, an examination of how Russia's reaction to these dangers has influenced the formation of its ontological security in three unique but interrelated ways is presented.
First, Russia's ontological beliefs arose in a consolidated state, symbolized by a powerful leader as a guarantee of physical security and power standing.
This idea is significant in the context of Russian society's traditionally communal character.
Second, physical security issues and how they relate to Russia's power standing have influenced Russia's imperial character.
Unlike earlier empires, Russia's imperial expansion began as soon as the country became a cohesive state.
As a result, imperial identity is profoundly ingrained in Russia's ontological security.
Third, the substance of Russia's ontological understanding as a major power is heavily influenced by the West.
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