This article explores the phenomenon of the Russian academic legal community’s isolation. It particularly focuses on the parts of the community conducting their research in international law and military interventions for humanitarian purposes. A quadrifactorial explanation for this isolation is proposed: domestic legal acts, the government’s educational policy, insufficient knowledge of foreign languages, and cultural and political beliefs impact the way Russian jurists perceive the international legal system as well as endow their writing with an excessive focus on theory of international law and peripheral issues. Additionally, these four factors reconcile the Russian academic legal community’s critical attitude toward the concept of military interventions for humanitarian purposes in general, condemnation of specific foreign interventions, and praise for Russian interventions. This article also argues that the Russian academic legal community perceives military intervention for humanitarian purposes as a two-tier threat: a political threat to the Russian Federation on one hand, and an epistemic threat questioning the validity of their largely theoretical knowledge on the other. Finally, the article argues that the Russian academic legal community’s perception of being threatened by military interventions for humanitarian purposes and its isolation are mutually enhancing.