Russia — Honduras: what are we looking for in a far country?

Abstract

The article is devoted to the Russia’s current relations with one of the most disadvantaged countries in Latin America – Honduras. The author aims to answer the question: does Moscow need to develop it? It turned out that it was not so easy to find the answer; to do this, it was necessary to study the political and economic situation in the country itself, assess its relations with the United States, find out who we are dealing with in the person of S. Castro, who came to power in 2022, and study the history of the establishment and development of Russian-Honduran relations. Only after completing these tasks it was possible to formulate clear recommendations, outline a possible future and identify "weaknesses" in the Russian-Honduran dialogue. The answer to the main question is still positive. Moreover, Russian-Honduran relations have good prospects for both sides, in particular, for their foreign policy and diplomacy. The author used a variety of sources: from reports of the Carnegie Endowment, the National Statistical Agency of Honduras, official documents of government departments to publications of ECLAC, the largest Honduran and world media, newspapers, scientific journals and special publications devoted to Honduras, its foreign and domestic policy. The key methodology used is an institutionalist and behaviorist approach, comparative analysis, as well as partially content and event analysis. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that the author writes for the first time in the scientific literature about the possible unfair use of US financial assistance programs to foreign states in order to enrich individual bureaucratic elites both in Washington and in Tegucigalpa.