A New Look at Russia's Military Doctrine

The new Russian military doctrine approved by President Dmitry Medvedev on Feb. 5 elicited an unwarranted negative reaction from the West.

Many analysts claim that the doctrine is divorced from reality and deliberately vague. Some incorrectly cited passages from Russia’s two previous military doctrines adopted in 1993 by President Boris Yeltsin and in 2000 by President Vladimir Putin. A few critics did not even bother to compare the major differences between Russia’s new doctrine and the military doctrine of the United States.