The article analyzes the foreign policy of Vladimir Putin during his three presidential terms (2000—2004; 2004—2008; 2012—2018). During this time, Russia has managed to restore its status of a great power lost after the collapse of the USSR (if not in terms of economic indicators, then in terms of military power), and has become one of the most influential actors in international relations on a global level. On the basis of available sources — speeches by Vladimir Putin and program documents prepared on his behalf — the author tries to find answers to a number of important questions: what principles did President Putin initially lay in the basis of Russia’s foreign policy when he first took the post of head of state, what goals did he pursue, what were his foreign policy priorities and what influenced the adjustment of these goals and priorities? It is fundamentally important to elucidate the reasons that determined the turn from close cooperation between Russia and the West in the early 2000s to the resumption of confrontation, which took on increasingly sharp forms throughout the 2010s. The foreign policy of President Putin is considered in its evolution and in relation to the development of the economic and socio-political situation in Russia in the period under review.