ALT abstract: Despite the crises of the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government’s largely interest-based approach to climate change continues to be shaped by short-term thinking about economic advantage and great-power status. Policymaking is channeled through a narrow decision-making selectorate in Russia’s authoritarian system. A potential window of opportunity for more ambitious climate policy at the start of the pandemic failed to produce a critical juncture due to its short-term nature and economic interests of institutionally empowered actors. The war has exaggerated unfavorable conditions for any serious government effort to address climate change in three ways: 1) intensifying elite interest in fossil fuel extraction; 2) consolidating an ideological view of great-power status opposed to the current international order; and 3) prompting further institutional narrowing of voices contributing to policy...