Analysis
Russia’s National Security Strategy denotes U.S. and NATO as threats
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The National Security Strategy blames the U.S. and the European Union for the Ukraine crisis; in particular, it paints the Euro-Maidan events as a Western-sponsored “color revolution” and a potential threat to Russia’s security. Russia’s new National Security Strategy (NSS), signed into law by President Vladimir Putin on December 31, 2015, marks the culmination of a long process in deteriorating relations between Moscow and Washington and in how the Russian security elite perceives the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The security document itself must be assessed in this context, as well as with the understanding of how and why the new strategy was formulated. The Kremlin explicitly denoting the United States and NATO as threats to Russia’s security has longer-term implications concerning the limits of future cooperation (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, January 4, 5, 7). According to Russian law, the NSS must be updated every six years.