Akit Panda — Russia's Old, New Doctrine

At the Moscow Conference, Kremlin officials “briefed” participants from over 41 countries on “the new emerging Russian national security doctrine.” According to Defense News:

The doctrine holds that the U.S. and its allies are engineering revolutions and uprisings in key areas around the world to destabilize governments and replace existing regimes in order to establish control and exploit natural resources. Furthermore, the doctrine treats the U.S. as a dangerous nation that seeks to dismantle the Russian statehood.

The doctrine was outlined by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu himself, which means this pronouncement comes from the highest levels of Russia’s leadership. The pronouncement is unsurprising given the fact that relations between Russia and the West, in particular the United States, are at their post-Cold War low point. Between disagreements over how to deal with Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and, more recently, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its fomentation of separatism in eastern Ukraine, Russia has positioned itself as an adversarial power to Western interests.

Shoigu emphasized that the United States and Western powers were actively fomenting “color revolutions” across the world. The Russian position on Ukraine’s post-Yanukovych government is in line with this statement — the Kremlin sees the Yatsenyuk government as one that was propped up by the United States and the European Union to undermine Russian interests. If we take Shoigu’s statements at the Moscow conference to accurately reflect the most current manifestation of Russian foreign policy priorities then the number one goal for the Kremlin is to combat the United States’ perceived geopolitical expansionism.

One expert cited by Defense News, Theodore Karasik, notes, “The Russians are interpreting U.S. interference in countries like Ukraine and across the Middle East like Egypt, Syria, North Africa and even Venezuela as operations to take their natural wealth and convert their population towards a western leaning oversight.” Furthermore, he adds, “the Russians, by announcing this new doctrine in such clear terms, are announcing their intent to counter this activity [of destabilizing governments by popular uprising] by conducting additional research and analysis, ultimately coming out with counter policies.”

The Diplomat
Russia's Old, New Doctrine
Akit Panda