Russia's new strategic posture

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the last day of 2015, approving a document that updates and replaces Russia's existing National Security Strategy (NSS) paper, which had been in force since 2009. The updated strategy paper essentially summarizes Russia's national interests and defines its strategic priorities for the years ahead. Although there was no officially endorsed English version of the paper, various unofficial translations and semi-official leaks to the press have already revealed enough of the document that we can now safely argue that it generally reflects Russia's anxiety over NATO's enlargement and undeclared containment policies outside the country and several domestic difficulties inside.

The relationship between Russia and the West has been deteriorating since the former first invaded and then annexed Crimea on March 18, 2014. The continued Russian hostility toward Ukraine, resultant Western economic sanctions on Russia, which exacerbated the impact of its economic recession due to low oil prices and the depreciation of ruble and the Western-induced international isolation of Russia, have all contributed to the acrimony between Russia and the West. This led to Russian tests of European resolve through violations of NATO airspace and territorial waters. In response, NATO organized exercises and a military build-up on its eastern borders and decided to enhance its defense capabilities by increasing members' defense budgets and creating new task forces at the Wales Summit on Sept. 4-5, 2014.

In light of the changing security environment, the Russian NSS document has established goals and priorities for Russia, while also highlighting its threat perceptions that includes "color revolutions," "bio-labs around Russian...