Behind the Delays of Russia’s Security Strategy

By James Kimer | Published: May 15, 2009

strat51409.jpgEarlier this week we blogged about Russia’s new National Security Strategy, a document signed by the president which was delayed one month in its publication.  What was happening during that month, and what changes were being made?  The Power Vertical has some theories:

When the one-month delay was announced, some analysts expected the draft would be modified to reflect the apparently warming relations between Russia and the West (the United States in particular) following mutual pledges to “reset” ties. However, gazeta.ru quoted sources involved in the drafting process as saying the changes primarily were motivated by the country’s economic crisis. Vyacheslav Senchagov, a member of the council’s research staff, told the website that specific performance benchmarks were removed from the draft in order to make it easier for the government to say it had achieved the document’s aims.

 

And, indeed, the document does not reflect any warming of Russia‘s relations with the West. It states that a major threat to Russian security is “the policy of some foreign states aimed at attaining an overwhelming military superiority, particularly in the area of strategic nuclear weapons, through targeted, informational, and other high-technology means of conducting armed conflict, non-nuclear strategic arms, the development of missile defenses, and the militarization of space” (It is clear why Andrei Savelyov, head of the Great Russia party, commented that “in places the document is so ungrammatical and illogical that it makes the reader weep”).

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One Comment

  1. DanielB
    Posted May 18, 2009 at 12:51 am | Permalink

    Well ; i have read this doctrine this WE .It has 112 items and really it’s ” much ado about anything ” .The issue of the arctic represents more or less 1% of the doctrine and the possibiity of wars are remote in the time if they are close to Russia , on its borders .As opposed our contemporary and middle range ( 5 years ) threats are far away from Russia .This is how the revival of the CFE that Russia hopes should be analyzed : It deals with security of Russia on its borders and diplomats have now time to discuss it and prohibit these hypotetic wars .This arcticle should have been analyzed in a space-time axis referential and linked to the CFE treaty rather than the Tuesday dedaline for the submissions on the continental shelf .This doctrine has plenty interresting items : Financial , social and economic security , ecological security , biological security ( fight against pandemias which is very important today ! ) and even a cultural aspect .The cultural items of the Russian security doctrine are very interresting as one of them deals with the battle of Rzhev polemic : The rewriting of Russian history .This report shows that Russian political and military planners have not a ” paranoïd ” view of today’s world but a very relistic view .Today ” national security ” is not only a matter of military force or law enforcement force but a concept which involves many aereas and makes many personns responsible for it : Doctors , economists , biologists , teachers and even film makers !The last must nut contribute to spread racial or religious hatred and promote the contrary .So the Russian security council should quickly make a translation of it in English , German , Spanish , Mandarin , Farsi , French ,…………. as everybody could make an idea by himself and see that what is related in the mainstrea medias is exagerated , as always for Russia , and sometimes is false if you replace it in the whole text .Now the ” west ” should also ask itself why Russian planners are viewing some gestures as ” threats ” …..Designing a ” threat ” by a metaphore when it’s matter of a state or an alliance is common .When Brazilian planners speak of ” A power from the Northern Hemisphere acting alone or in the frame of an alliance ” as a threat for Amazonia , it’s obvious they are not talking about Switzerland or Monaco !

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