“[My time at ACA] prepared me very well for the position that I took following that with the State Department, where I then implemented and helped to implement many of the policies that we tried to promote.”
Russia's National Security Concept
- On January 10, Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new national security concept, which outlines Russia's national interests during the current "dynamic transformation of the system of international relations." The new concept is an edited version of a draft approved by the Russian Security Council on October 5 and replaces the concept adopted in December 1997. (See page 23.)
A new military doctrine, intended to complement the newly adopted concept and to replace the current doctrine, is under review by the Russian Security Council and is expected to be approved soon, possibly as early as March. While the new concept is a broad survey of internal and external threats to Russia, the forthcoming doctrine will focus on military and strategic issues.
The 2000 concept is notable for its criticism of the United States and other Western nations and for the subtly revised nuclear posture it contains. While the previous concept reserved the right to use nuclear weapons first "in case of a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation," the new concept allows such use "to repulse armed aggression, if all other means of resolving the crisis have been exhausted."
The following are excerpts of the text as originally published in Russian in the January 14 issue of Nezavisimoye Voennoye Obozreniye and translated by the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service.
The national security blueprint [kontseptsiya] of the Russian Federation (hereinafter "blueprint") is a system of views on how to ensure in the Russian Federation security of the individual, society and state against external and internal threats in any aspect of life and activity.
The blueprint defines the most important directions of the state policy of the Russian Federation.
The national security of the Russian Federation is understood to mean the security of its multinational people, in whom reside sovereignty and the sole source of authority in the Russian Federation.
I. RUSSIA IN THE WORLD COMMUNITY
The situation in the world is characterized by a dynamic transformation of the system of international relations. Following the end of the bipolar confrontation era, two mutually-exclusive trends took shape. The first of these trends shows itself in the strengthened economic and political positions of a significant number of states and their integrative associations and in improved mechanisms for multilateral management of international processes. Economic, political, science and technological, environmental and information factors are playing an ever-increasing role. Russia will facilitate the formation of an ideology of establishing a multipolar world on this basis. The second trend shows itself in attempts to create an international relations structure based on domination by developed Western countries in the international community, under US leadership and designed for unilateral solutions (including the use of military force) to key issues in world politics in circumvention of the fundamental rules of international law. The formation of international relations is accompanied by competition and also by the aspiration of a number of states to strengthen their influence on global politics, including by creating weapons of mass destruction. Military force and violence remain substantial aspects of international relations. Russia is one of the world's major countries, with centuries of history and rich cultural traditions. Despite the complex international situation and its own temporary difficulties, Russia continues to play an important role in global processes by virtue of its great economic, scientific, technological and military potential and its unique strategic location on the Eurasian continent.
There are prospects for the Russian Federation's broader integration into the world economy and for expanded cooperation with international economic and financial institutions. The commonality of interests of Russia and other states is objectively preserved in many international security problems, including opposing the proliferation of mass destruction weapons, settling and preventing regional conflicts, fighting international terrorism and the drugs trade, and resolving acute ecological problems of a global nature, including nuclear and radiation safety.
At the same time, a number of states are stepping up efforts to weaken Russia politically, economically, militarily and in other ways. Attempts to ignore Russia's interests when solving major issues of international relations, including conflict situations, are capable of undermining international security, stability, and the positive changes achieved in international relations.
Terrorism is transnational in nature and poses a threat to world stability. This issue has exacerbated sharply in many countries, including in the Russian Federation, and to fight it requires unification of efforts by the entire international community, increased effectiveness of existing ways of countering this threat, and also urgent action to neutralize it.
II. RUSSIA'S NATIONAL INTERESTS
Russia's national interests are the combined and balanced interests of the individual, society and the state in economic; domestic political, social, international, informational, military, border, ecological security. They are long-term in nature and define the main goals and strategic and short-term goals of the state's domestic and foreign policy. The national interests are secured by institutions of state authority, which may also act in coordination with public organizations operating on the basis of the constitution and legislation of the Russian Federation.
The interests of the individual lie in exercise of constitutional rights and freedoms and provision of personal security; in an improved quality and standard of living; and in physical, spiritual and intellectual development.
The interests of society lie in strengthening democracy; creating a rule-of-law and social state; in achieving and maintaining public harmony and in the spiritual renewal of Russia. The interests of the state lie in the inviolability of the constitutional system and of Russia's sovereignty and territorial integrity; in political, economic and social stability; in unconditional assurance of lawfulness and maintenance of law and order; and in the development of international cooperation on equal terms and to mutual benefit. Russia's national interests may be assured only on the basis of sustainable economic development. Therefore Russia's national interests in economics are of key importance.
Russia's national interests in the domestic political sphere lie in stability of the constitutional system and of state authority and its institutions; in ensuring civil peace and national accord, territorial integrity, unity of the legal domain, and law and order; in completing the process of establishing a democratic society; and in removing factors causing and feeding social, intercommunal and religious conflicts, political extremism, national and religious separatism, and terrorism.
Russia's national interests in the social sphere lie in assurance of a high standard of living for its people. The national interests in the spiritual sphere lie in preservation and strengthening of society's moral values, traditions of patriotism and humanism, and the country's cultural and scientific potential.
Russia's national interests in the international sphere lie in upholding its sovereignty and strengthening its position as a great power and as one of the influential centres of a multipolar world, in development of equal and equitable relations with all countries and integrative associations and in particular with the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Russia's traditional partners, in universal observance of human rights and freedoms and the impermissibility of dual standards in this respect.
Russia's national interests in the informational sphere lie in observance of its citizens' constitutional rights and freedoms to receive and make use of information, in the development of modern telecommunications, and in protecting the state's information resources from unsanctioned access.
Russia's national interests in the military sphere lie in protection of its independence, sovereignty and state and territorial integrity, in the prevention of military aggression against Russia and its allies and in ensuring the conditions for peaceful and democratic development of the state.
Russia's national interests in border policy lie in the establishment of political, legal, organizational and other conditions for ensuring reliable protection of the state border of the Russian Federation, and in observance of the procedure and rules laid down by Russian Federation legislation for the carrying on of economic and all other kinds of activity within the borders of the Russian Federation.
Russia's national interests in the environmental sphere lie in the preservation and improvement of the environment.
A vital component of Russia's national interests is protection of the individual, society and state from terrorism, including international terrorism, and also from extraordinary situations, both natural and man-made, and their consequences, and in times of war from the dangers arising from the conduct and consequences of military action.
III. THREATS TO THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION'S NATIONAL SECURITY
The condition of the national economy and incomplete nature of the system and structure of the authorities of state and of society, social and political polarization of society and criminalization of social relations, the growth of organized crime and terrorism, and a deterioration in intercommunal and international relations are all creating a broad range of internal and external threats to the country's security.
In the economy, these threats are of a comprehensive nature and are caused above all by a substantial contraction in the gross domestic product; reduced investment and innovation; diminished scientific and technological potential; stagnation in agriculture; a distorted banking system; growth in the state's internal and external debt; and domination of exports by fuel, raw materials and energy components of imports by food and consumer items, including consumer essentials.
A weakened scientific and technological potential, reduction in research in strategically-important areas of science and technology and departure for abroad of specialists and intellectual property mean that Russia is faced with the threat of loss of its leading world positions, decay of its high-technology industries, increased dependence on foreign technology and the undermining of its ability to defend itself.
Adverse trends in the economy lie at the root of the separatist aspirations of a number of constituent parts of the Russian Federation. This leads to increased political instability and a weakening of Russia's unified economic domain and its most important components-industrial production, transportation links, and the finance, banking, credit and tax systems.
Economic disintegration, social stratification and the dilution of spiritual values promote tension between regions and the centre and pose a threat to the federal structure and the socioeconomic fabric of the Russian Federation.
Ethno-egoism, ethnocentrism and chauvinism as manifested in the activity of a number of public formations, and also uncontrolled migration promote nationalism, political and religious extremism and ethnoseparatism, and create a breeding ground for conflicts.
The country's single legal domain is being eroded by nonobservance of the principle that the Constitution of the Russian Federation should prevail over other legal standards and that federal law should prevail over laws of constituent parts of the Russian Federation, and also by poor coordination of state management at various levels.
The threat of criminalization of the society that has emerged from reform of the socio-political system and economy is becoming especially acute. Serious mistakes made in the initial stage of economic, military, law-enforcement and other reform, weakened state regulation and control, imperfect legislation, absence of a strong state social policy, and a decline in society's spiritual-moral potential are the main factors aiding growth in crime, especially organized crime, and corruption.
The consequences of these miscalculations can be seen in weakened legislative supervision of the situation in the country; in the merger of certain elements of executive and legislative authority with criminal structures; and in their infiltration of the banking system, major industries, trade organizations and supply networks. In connection with this, the fight against crime and corruption is not only legal but also political in nature.
The scale of terrorism and organized crime is growing because of the conflicts that frequently accompany changes of ownership and also an increased struggle for power along clan and ethnic or nationalist interests. The lack of an effective system in society for preventing legal infringements, inadequate legal and logistic support for the battle against organized crime and terrorism, legal nihilism and the departure of qualified personnel from the law-enforcement agencies are all increasing the impact that this threat has on the individual, society and the state.
Stratification of society into a narrow circle of the rich and preponderant mass of the needy and increasing numbers of people below the poverty threshold and growing unemployment pose a threat to Russia's security in the social sphere.
A threat to the nation's physical health can be seen in the crisis in the systems of public health and social protection of the population, in increasing consumption of alcohol and narcotics.
The consequences of this profound social crisis are a sharp drop in the birth rate and average life expectancy, distortion of the demographic and social composition of society, an undermining of the workforce as the foundation for industrial development, a weakening of the fundamental nucleus of society-the family-and a decline in society's spiritual, moral and creative potential.
Deepening crisis in the domestic political, social and spiritual spheres could lead to the loss of democratic gains.
The fundamental threats in the international sphere are brought about by the following factors:
Threats to the Russian Federation's national security in the international sphere can be seen in attempts by other states to oppose a strengthening of Russia as one of the influential centres of a multipolar world, to hinder the exercise of its national interests and to weaken its position in Europe, the Middle East, Transcaucasus, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific Region[.] Terrorism represents a serious threat to the national security of the Russian Federation. International terrorism is waging an open campaign to destabilize Russia.
There is an increased threat to the national security of the Russian Federation in the information sphere. A serious danger arises from the desire of a number of countries to dominate the global information domain space and to expel Russia from the external and internal information market; from the development by a number of states of "information warfare" concepts that entail creation of ways of exerting a dangerous effect on other countries' information systems, of disrupting information and telecommunications systems and data storage systems, and of gaining unauthorized access to them. The level and scope of the military threat are growing.
Elevated to the rank of strategic doctrine, NATO's transition to the practice of using military force outside its zone of responsibility and without UN Security Council sanction could destabilize the entire global strategic situation. The growing technical advantage of a number of leading powers and their enhanced ability to create new weapons and military equipment could provoke a new phase of the arms race and radically alter the forms and methods of warfare.
Foreign special services and the organizations they use are increasing their activity in the Russian Federation. Adverse trends in the military sphere are being assisted by delays in reforming the military and the defence industry of the Russian Federation, by inadequate funding for defence and by a poor regulatory and legal framework. At the present time, this can be seen in the critically low level of operational and military training in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and of the other forces and military bodies and authorities, and in the impermissible drop in equipment of the forces with modern armaments and military and special hardware, and in the extreme acuteness of social problems; this leads to a weakening of the military security of the Russian Federation as a whole.
Threats to the national security and interests of the Russian Federation in the border sphere are caused by the following:
The threat of a deteriorating environmental situation in the country and depletion of natural resources depends directly on the state of the economy and society's willingness to appreciate the global nature and importance of these issues. For Russia this threat is especially great because of the domination position in industry of the fuel and energy sector, inadequate legislation for environmental protection, lack or limited use of energy-saving technologies, and low environmental awareness. There is a trend for Russia to be used as a place for reprocessing and burying environmentally dangerous materials and substances.
Against this background the weakening of state supervision and inadequate legal and economic levers for averting and relieving emergencies are increasing the risk of man-made disasters in all sectors of the economy.
IV. ENSURING THE NATIONAL SECURITY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
The following are the principal tasks for ensuring the Russian Federation's national security:
It is an important priority of state policy to ensure national interests and uphold the country's economic interests.
The following are important tasks in foreign economic activities:
Against a background of liberalization of Russia's foreign trade and increased competition on the global market for goods and services, there must be greater protection of the interests of Russian producers.
An important factor is a balanced monetary policy designed to gradually reduce Russia's dependence on external borrowing and to strengthen its presence in the international financial and economic organizations.
The state must play a stronger role in regulating foreign banking, insurance and investment companies and impose definitions and justified limitations on the transfer for use by foreign companies of Russia's natural resources, telecommunications, transport and production infrastructures.
Effective action must be taken in currency regulation, to pave the way for an end to payments in foreign currency on the domestic market and to end the uncontrolled export of capital.
The main directions for ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation in matters of the domestic economy are:
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The following are the fundamental directions for protecting Russia's constitutional system:
Efforts aimed at fighting crime and corruption require consolidation. It is very much in Russia's interests to uproot the economic and socio-political causes of these socially dangerous phenomena and to draw up a comprehensive system for protecting the individual, society and the state against criminality.
The formation of a system of effective social preventive measures and education of law-abiding citizens is of a top priority task. These measures must be subordinated to the interests of protecting every person's right to personal security regardless of race, nationality, language, origin, property interests or official status, place of residence, religion, membership of public associations or other circumstances.
It is vital when fighting crime to:
Decisions made and steps taken by state authorities in the fight against organized crime must be open, specific, and understandable to every citizen, they must be preventive in nature, they must ensure equality of all before the law and inevitability of liability, and they must rely on society's support.
The development of a legal base as the foundation for reliably protecting citizens' rights and lawful interests, as well as observance of Russia's obligations under international law in the sphere of fighting crime and protecting human rights are needed first and foremost for preventive measures and for crime-fighting. It is important to deprive crime of the sustenance it derives from shortcomings in legislation and the economic and social crisis.
An effective system for financial control, enhanced administrative, civic and legal levers and ways of verifying the assets and sources of income and expenditures of state officials and other employees must be created to prevent corruption in the state apparatus and to eliminate conditions for legalizing criminally acquired capital.
The fight against terrorism, the drug trade and smuggling must be based on a special state-wide set of countermeasures designed to put an end to such activities.
Using the framework of international agreements, there must be effective collaboration with foreign states and their law-enforcement and special agencies, and also with international organizations tasked with fighting terrorism. Broad use must be made of international experience of dealing with this phenomenon and there must be a well-coordinated mechanism for countering international terrorism, closing all available routes for illicit weapons and explosives within the country and preventing their import from abroad. The federal state authorities should pursue within the country persons involved in terrorism irrespective of where acts of terrorism damaging to the Russian Federation were conceived or carried out.
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The following are among priority directions for ensuring ecological security:
A new approach is essential for the organization and conduct of civil defence in the Russian Federation and there must be a qualitative improvement to the unified state system for early warning and removal of emergency situations, including its further integration into equivalent systems of foreign countries.
The foreign policy of the Russian Federation should be designed to:
Ensuring the Russian Federation's military security is a crucial direction of state activity. The main goal in this respect is to ensure an adequate response to threats which may arise in the 21st century, with rational spending on defence.
In preventing war and armed conflicts, the Russian Federation prefers political, diplomatic, economic and other non-military means. The national interests of the Russian Federation, however, require the presence of military power sufficient for its defence. The Russian Federation armed forces play the main role in ensuring the military security of the Russian Federation.
A vital task of the Russian Federation is to exercise deterrence to prevent aggression on any scale and nuclear or otherwise, against Russia and its allies.
The Russian Federation should possess nuclear forces that are capable of guaranteeing the infliction of the desired extent of damage against any aggressor state or coalition of states in any conditions and circumstances.
In their peacetime order of battle the Russian Federation armed forces should be able to provide dependable protection against aerial attack; to perform jointly with other troops, military units and entities missions to repulse aggression in a local war (armed conflict); and to carry out strategic deployments for missions in a large-scale war. The Russian Federation armed forces should also ensure Russia's ability to carry out peacekeeping duties.
One of the vital strategic directions in providing for the Russian Federation's military security is effective collaboration and cooperation with members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The interests of ensuring Russia's national security predetermine the need, under appropriate circumstances, for Russia to have a military presence in certain strategically important regions of the world. The stationing of limited military contingents (military bases, naval units) there on a treaty basis must ensure Russia's readiness to fulfil its obligations and to assist in forming a stable military-strategic balance of forces in regions, and must enable the Russian Federation to react to a crisis situation in its initial stage and achieve its foreign-policy goals.
The Russian Federation considers the possibility of employing military force to ensure its national security based on the following principles:
An important role in ensuring Russia's national interests belongs to the defence industry. Restructuring and conversion of the defence industry should proceed without detriment to the development of new technologies and science-and-technology opportunities or to modernization of armaments, military and special equipment and the presence of Russian manufacturers on the world markets.
The way should be paved for organization of the priority fundamental, forecasting and original research, which ensure the existence of a promising and advanced science-and-technology sector in the interests of defence and the state's security.
The following are principal tasks as regards border security:
The following are crucial tasks for ensuring the Russian Federation's information security:
The use of intelligence and counterintelligence resources for the timely discovery of threats and identification of their sources is of particular importance when ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation.
The system for ensuring the Russian Federation's national security is created and developed in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal laws, Russian Federation presidential decrees and directives, Russian Federation government decrees and resolutions, and federal programmes in this area.
The basis of the system for ensuring the Russian Federation's national security consists of the agencies and resources for ensuring national security that carry out political, legal, organizational, economic, military and other measures aimed at ensuring the security of the individual, society and the state.
The powers, composition, principles and operating procedure of the agencies and forces ensuring the Russian Federation's national security are defined in the relevant Russian Federation legislative instruments.
The following are involved in forming and implementing policy for ensuring the Russian Federation's national security:
The Russian Federation intends to decisively and firmly uphold its national interests. The existing legal democratic institutions and structure of Russian Federation state authorities and the broad involvement of political parties and public associations in implementing the Russian Federation National Security Blueprint serve as a guarantee of Russia's dynamic development in the 21st century.