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As we know, countries with great power potential usually have great desires. But with desires like the Russia's, a new approach is needed to win over the hearts of the foreign audiences. Countries with great power potential typically use cultural organisations to boost their images in foreign states. Thus, Russia's actions can be seen as a signal of soft power as it spreads its culture and language positioning its universities, healthcare and technology as a powerful nation. Russia has several reasons to launch soft power campaigns through its cultural organisations such as gaining influence over foreign audience.

Russia has created several different organisations that function successfully in Austria as they promote Russian cultural, educational and cooperative ties with their compatriots. They even brand Russia as an major state that is building bridges with nations from the Western World. Russia has potentially used its soft-power to send different signals to Western communities, and those signals are also part of my analysis. This work explores the activities of Russian cultural institutes in Austria in order to better understand the reasons and consequences of the use of soft power by Russia.