Abstract. The article analyzes the main events and trends in world politics in 2019 and Russia’s place in it. Russia’s steps aimed at maintaining a balance of its positions in the world are assessed against the background of the degradation of the system of international relations. Considerable attention is paid to global challenges that have increasingly important place in the world agenda. The synergy of environmental issues with protest movements exacerbates and destabilizes the socio-political situation in a number of countries. The final section is devoted to the development of diversified relations between Russia and international partners on the basis of bilateral relations and in multilateral formats. It is concluded that through 2019 positive and negative results for Russia’s foreign policy have been relatively balanced.