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Putin Signs New Security Strategy Warning Of Heightened Risks From West

December 31, 2015
by Carl Schreck

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a new national-security strategy accusing the United States of trying to "contain" Russia through "political, economic, military, and informational pressure" and blaming Washington for the war in Ukraine.

The 40-page document, approved by Putin and published December 31, reflects the sharp decline in Russia's ties with the West since the previous iteration, approved in May 2009 at the outset of U.S. President Barack Obama's "reset" policy with Moscow.

The previous version mentioned the United States only three times and limited its criticism of the West largely to U.S. plans for a missile-defense shield in Europe and what it called NATO encroachment toward Russia's borders.

The new document accuses the West for of trying to use "levers of tension in the Eurasian region: to damage Russia's "national interests." As an example, it specifically cites the ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally, in February 2014. The United States has rejected previousaccusations that it was behind the protests in Ukraine or Yanukovych's ouster.

"The support of the United States and the European Union of an unconstitutional government coup in Ukraine has led to a deep schism in Ukrainian society and the outbreak of armed conflict," says the new strategy document, which was published on the Kremlin's website.

Yanukovych fled to Russia amid antigovernment protests that month, triggering events that led to the Kremlin's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and a war between Russia-backed separatists and Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine that the UN says has killed more than 9,000 since April 2014.

The events in Ukraine, where a pro-Western government took power, has plunged Russia's ties with the West to depths unseen since the fall of the Soviet Union. Both Washington and Brussels have imposed sanctions against Russia in response to its interference in Ukraine.

Kyiv, the United States, the European Union, and NATO accuse Russia of providing separatists in eastern Ukraine with money, weapons, and personnel, a charge the Kremlin denies despite significant evidence supporting the allegations.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/putin-signs-new-security-strategy- warning-of-heightened-risks-from-west/27460849.html

Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.