Russia Revising National Security Strategy to Reflect New Threats

Russia is revising its current national security strategy and information security doctrine to reflect recent trends in the geopolitical situation, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The move had been prompted by new threats and challenges that had emerged as a result of Arab Spring events, crises in Syria and Iraq, as well as the situation in Ukraine, Patrushev said in an article to be published by the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper on Wednesday.

"In order to bring the fundamental principles of Russia's national security up to date, we have started work on the revision of key documents on strategic planning — the national security strategy until 2020 and the doctrine on information security."

He also emphasized the increasing role of information warfare in modern conflicts.

Russia's current national security strategy was endorsed six years ago by then-President Dmitry Medvedev.

The country's military doctrine was also amended in late December 2014, singling out Russia's interests in the Arctic as one of its new key priorities.

Moscow stopped short of including the notion of preventive nuclear strike in its defense guidelines, with the Kremlin saying that prevention of a nuclear war or any other type of conflict was at the core of the nation's defense policy.