The World is changing and future shape of the international system is unclear. Nevertheless it seems to be certain that the Russian Federation wants to play an important role in process of creating its future design. Next international system will be probably based in multipolarity where, even though that power still will be distributed unevenly, no single power (or group of powers) will be able to promote and defend its own normative position. All major powers will try not only to expand their interests, but also their distinct world views, including idea of sovereignty. In 2006 concept of so called „sovereign democracy“ was coined in Russia, to distinguish and relieve Russian way of „democracy“ from western standards. After annexation of Crimea term sovereignty was given a new definition: “ability to act entirely independently”. While first mentioned concept was oriented inward, and thus did not represent any significant challenge for international community, the latter is oriented outside and provokes many questions. One of them is assumption, that Russia’s reluctance to accept western norms is based not only in recent adjustment of international system, that it was not provoked by insensitive expansion of NATO and EU, but that it reflects much deeper patterns of mental and value development of Russian society and its elites. One possibility, how to answer this urgent question, is to examine how Russia understands seemingly understandable phenomenon of distance. We will try to examine the problem of different understanding and application of sovereignty from the point of view of gravitational, topological and attributional distance, as it was introduced by Alan K. Henrikson.
