The article explores the influence of the religious and political concept of “Rus’ — the New Israel” on the public consciousness of Russia and its foreign policy culture. Over several centuries of Russian history, this concept played a leading role for understanding and conceptualizing the major political events in Russian chronicles and religious literature. The Russian land was identified with ancient Israel, affecting the perception and interpretation of the events of the time and the way people thought, helping to establish a national foreign policy culture. The influence of the idea of “Rus’ — New Israel” is dominant as a way of transmitting the message (medium) and thus becomes a message as such. This suggests that it was this religious-political construct that, in the early stages of the evolution of the Russian state, became the most fundamental way in which it identified itself in the surrounding world.