The goal of the paper is twofold. First, it seeks to understand how Russia formulates and frames bilateral relations on the rhetorical level, what discursive strategies, concepts are used in creating the relations with the partners and/or opponents. Second, it seeks to demonstrate how these strategies and descriptions are connected with the general representations in the foreign policy of the state, i.e. how possibly contradictory interpretations are integrated into consistent narratives about what Russia is and what it does. Bilateral relations with Germany since 2000 are chosen as a case analysis, and in this case the empirical question becomes - what it takes to be Russia's friend and how, with which stories a friend get conceptualized as such. The paper starts, first, from explicating the idea of foreign policy as a discursive practice and the role of power and symbols there, next, the general official narratives of Russia in the outside world is presented, and finally, the representation of Russian - German relations by Russian foreign policy makers is analyzed. Three themes/long-term events were chosen: the "pragmatic" partnership discourse; Nordstream project; role of the EU/Europe in bilateral relations. The attention is paid on how the foreign policy actors in their institutional context are strategically exploiting the narratives available to them and how the effort to "cover" inconsistencies create spaces for the foreign policy shifts and allows two lines in foreign policy thinking - pragmatism and idealism - living peacefully in one coherent foreign policy framework. Thus, with such analysis the paper tries to contribute to the interpretative analysis of the bilateral foreign policy relations.
