The article deals with the Russian foreign policy at the final stage of the Great Northern War from the mid-1710s to the beginning of the Aland Congress (1718). It analyzes the political situation in Europe at that time, and shows the attitude of the great European powers to the prospects for a peaceful settlement between Russia and Sweden. The author argues that Peter I’s actions in Germany were rational and appropriate, and Tsar’s desire to get a stronghold for Russia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and/or on the North Sea was reasonable and logic.