Status concerns play a key role in Russia's foreign policy and many scholars have argued that the historical "Russia Problem" is not about security dilemma but rather about how Russia is able to receive the status and respect from the West that it expects. The article argues that status conflicts cannot be understood without the interplay of perceptions and emotions. First, what really matters is not objective status but perceptions thereof and there seems to be a gap how Russia and the West perceive the status. Secondly, the perceptions of when status is gained or lost seems to be emotionally loaded. Russia is more willing to understand its relative status when military or economic issues are at stake, but if the dispute deals with international norms and questions of justice Russia is more likely to interpret Western action as viololating its status and conversely, it is more likely to interpret its own action as enhancing its status when it is defending such values differently from the West.
