"Russian Federation National Security Blueprint" approved by Russian Federation presidential edict No. 1300 dated 17 December 1997
The Russian Federation National Security Blueprint (hereinafter the Blueprint) is a political document reflecting the aggregate of officially accepted views regarding goals and state strategy in the sphere of ensuring the security of the individual, society, and the state from external and internal threats of a political, economic, social, military, man-made [tekhnogenyi], ecological, informational, or other nature in the light of existing resources and potential.
The Blueprint formulates key directions and principles of state policy. The Blueprint is the basis for the elaboration of specific programs and organizational documents in the sphere of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation.
At present the situation in the international arena is characterized primarily by the strengthening of trends toward the formation of a multi-polar world. This is manifested in the strengthening of the economic and political positions of a considerable number of states and their integration-oriented associations and in the improvement of mechanisms for multilateral control of international political, economic, financial, and informational processes. While military force factors retain their significance in international relations, economic, political, scientific and technical, ecological, and informational factors are playing an increasing role. At the same time international competition to secure natural, technological, and informational resources and markets is intensifying.
The formation of a multi-polar world will be a lengthy process.
Relapses into attempts to create a structure of international relations based on one-sided solutions of the key problems of world politics, including solutions based on military force, are still strong at the present stage of this process.
The growing gap between developed and developing countries will also affect the pace of and directions in the formation of a new structure of international relations.
The present period in the development of international relations opens up for the Russian Federation new opportunities to ensure its security, but entails a number of threats connected with the change in Russia's status within the world and the difficulties in carrying out internal reforms.
The preconditions for demilitarizing international relations and strengthening the role of law in settling disputed interstate problems have been created and the danger of direct aggression against the Russian Federation has decreased. All this opens up fundamentally new opportunities to mobilize resources to solve the country's internal problems.
There are prospects of broader integration of the Russian Federation with the world economy, including international credit and financial institutions -- the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. A trend toward increased cooperation between Russia and a number of CIS member states has emerged.
There has been an expansion in the commonality of Russia's interests with many states on problems of international security such as countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, settling and preventing regional conflicts, countering international terrorism and the drugs business, and solving acute global ecological problems, including nuclear and radiation security. This significantly increases the opportunity to ensure Russia's national security by nonmilitary means -- by means of legal treaty, political, economic, and other measures.
At the same time Russia's influence on resolving cardinal questions of international life which affect our state's interests has decreased significantly. In these conditions the desire of a number of states to weaken Russia's positions in the political, economic, and military spheres has increased.
The process of creating a model of general and all-embracing security for Europe on the basis of principles advanced in many respects on Russia's initiative entails considerable difficulties. The prospect of NATO expansion to the East is unacceptable to Russia since it represents a threat to its national security. Multilateral mechanisms for maintaining peace and security at both the global (United Nations) and regional (OSCE, CIS) levels are still insufficiently effective, which limits our potential when using such mechanisms to ensure Russia's national security interests by political and legal means. Russia is in a certain degree of isolation from the integration processes under way in the Asian and Pacific region.
All this is unacceptable to it as an influential European-Asian power with national interests in Europe, the Near East, Central and South Asia, and the Asian and Pacific region.
The positive trends in the internal development of the state and society are still not stable enough. The main reason for this is the preservation of crisis phenomena in the Russian economy. Production has declined and its structure has deteriorated in comparison with the pre-reform period. Investment and innovation activity is declining.
Russia is lagging increasingly far behind developed countries in terms of science and technology. Dependence on imports of food, consumer goods, equipment, and technologies is increasing. The external and internal state debt is growing. There is an exodus of skilled personnel from the sphere of material production and from the scientific sphere. The number of man-made emergencies is increasing. The property stratification of society is increasing, and the living standards of much of the population are declining. The level of crime and corruption is still high.
The country's economic, scientific, and demographic potential is declining. The markets and raw material infrastructure of Russian industry have shrunk. Despite the unprecedented increase in the share of GNP accounted for by foreign trade, Russia's integration with the world market often takes place on terms that are not to our country's advantage.
Social accord has not been achieved, and the process of establishing a unifying national idea that defines not only the philosophical basis but also the long-term goals of the development of multinational Russian society and the main ways and means of achieving them has not been completed.
The former defense system has been disrupted, and the creation of a new one is proceeding slowly. Long unprotected sections of the Russian Federation state border have appeared.
At the same time Russia has all the preconditions for maintaining and consolidating its position as a power capable of ensuring its people's prosperity and playing an important role in world processes. Russia possesses a considerable economic and scientific and technical potential which determines the country's capacity for stable development. It occupies a unique strategic position on the Eurasian continent and possesses considerable reserves of raw materials and resources. The main institutions of democratic statehood and a mixed economy have been established in the country. Measures are being taken to stabilize the economy and create the preconditions for production growth on the basis of the structural restructuring of industry. Russia is one of the biggest multinational states and has an age-old history and culture and its own national interests and traditions.
All these factors, bearing in mind that the Russian Federation has a powerful nuclear force potential, create the preconditions for ensuring reliable national security for the country in the 21st century.
Russia's national interests are based on the national assets and national values of the Russian Federation's peoples and are ensured by the potential of the economy, the political and military organization of the state, and the spiritual-moral and intellectual potential of the multinational Russian society.
The system of Russia's national interests is determined by the aggregate of the basic interests of the individual, society, and the state.
The aggregate of the basic interests of the individual, society, and the state determines Russia's national interests in the sphere of the economy, in the domestic political, international, defense, and informational spheres, and in the social sphere, spiritual life, and culture.
An exceptionally important factor is the ability of the economy to provide all citizens with worthy living conditions and a worthy quality of life and with the opportunity for them to realize their creative efforts, spiritual needs, and material requirements. Poverty as a social phenomenon must be excluded from the life of Russian society. We must ensure a worthy life for veterans, invalids, and old people, and also access for the whole population to education, culture, medical services, transportation, communications, and municipal services.
From the viewpoint of national interests the most urgent task in the sphere of the economy is to ensure its expansion, protection of the interests of domestic producers, the enhancement of innovation and investment activity, constant controls over the country's strategic resources, and the maintenance of a scientific potential capable of asserting Russia's independence in strategically important spheres of scientific and technical progress.
A most important condition for implementing national interests in this sphere is the transition of the economy to a model of stable development with a certain level of state regulation of economic processes which guarantees the stable functioning and development of a mixed economy and ensures the balanced solution of socioeconomic tasks and the problems of conservation of the environment with a view to satisfying the needs of present and future generations.
The unity of the economic area and the existence of a large and diverse internal market are a most important national asset for Russia.
Its preservation and development in the light of regions' production specialization are of consolidating importance to the Russian economy.
In the foreign economic sphere Russia's national interests lie in establishing for Russian producers economic ties that ensure the realization of Russian enterprises' interests and promote the enhanced competitiveness of Russian output, production efficiency, and economic growth. Russia rejects forcible methods in foreign economic activity.
The coordination of the interests of the peoples inhabiting the country, the organization of comprehensive cooperation among them, and the implementation of a responsible and balanced state nationalities policy are extremely important tasks whose solution will make it possible to ensure internal political stability and Russia's unity. The comprehensive resolution of these tasks must form the basis of internal state policy and ensure the development of the Russian Federation as a multinational democratic federative state.
The Russian Federation's national interests in the sphere of the fight against crime and corruption require the consolidation of the efforts of society and the state, the sharp restriction of the economic and socio-political basis of these illegal phenomena, and the elaboration of a comprehensive system of legal, special, and other measures in order to put an effective stop to crimes and offenses, ensure that the individual, society, and the state are protected from criminal encroachments, and create a system for monitoring the level of crime.
The efforts of society and the state should be directed toward forming a system of effective preventive social measures and raising law-abiding citizens.
The fight against organized crime, corruption, terrorism, and banditry should be oriented toward preventing and cutting short unlawful actions, ensuring the inevitability of accountability for any crime, and protecting every person's right to personal safety regardless of nationality, citizenship, religion, views, or convictions.
The realization of this [goal] requires a state policy whose implementation rules out the possibility of damaging Russian culture and ensures the preservation and augmentation of its [Russia's] national values and national assets and the further spiritual and intellectual development of society.
An undoubted priority in Russia's foreign policy course is and will remain activities to ensure the inviolability of borders and the territorial integrity of the state and to protect its constitutional system against possible encroachments by other states.
The realization of Russia's national interests in the international sphere is largely determined by the nature of relations with the leading powers and integration-oriented associations of the world community. The development of equal partnership relations with them accords with the Russian Federation's status and its foreign policy interests and is intended to strengthen global and regional security and create favorable conditions for our country's participation in world trade and in cooperation in the scientific-technical and credit and financial spheres.
It accords with Russia's national interests to develop dialogue and all-around cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, America, the Near East, West Asia, Africa, and the Asian- Pacific region.
Russia's national interests in the international sphere also include the protection of the life, dignity, and internationally recognized civil rights and freedoms of citizens of Russia and our compatriots abroad.
The existing military organization is burdensome to the state. It must be reformed in the course of military organizational development, which should take account of the changed balance of forces in the world arena and make effective use of the state's economic potential to ensure an appropriate response to military threats to the Russian Federation's national interests.
Russia's national interests are long-term in nature and they define the main objectives on its historical path, shape the strategic and current tasks of the state's domestic and foreign policy, and are realized through the system of state administration.
A necessary condition of the realization of Russia's national interests is the ability to resolve domestic political, economic, and social tasks independently, irrespective of the intentions and positions of foreign states and communities of states, and to maintain a standard of living for the population such as to ensure national accord and socio-political stability in the country.
A geopolitical and international situation that is new to Russia, negative processes in the country's economy, the deterioration in inter-ethnic relations, and the social polarization of Russian society create a direct threat to the country's national security.
These threatening phenomena are characterized by an increase in the exportation from Russia of foreign currency reserves and strategically important raw materials along with extremely inefficient or criminal utilization of the profits, an increase in the exodus of skilled personnel and intellectual property from Russia, uncontrolled outflow of capital, growth in the country's dependence on foreign producers of high-tech equipment, underdeveloped financial, organizational, and information support for Russian exports, and an irrational structure of imports.
The decline in the country's scientific and technical potential leads to Russia's loss of its leading positions in the world, a fall in the quality of research in strategically important areas of scientific-technical progress, the decay of high-tech production facilities, a decline in the technical standard of physical production, an increase in the probability of man-made disasters, Russia's becoming technologically dependent on the leading Western countries, and the undermining of the state's defense potential, and makes it hard to achieve a radical modernization of the national technological base.
A particular threat is created by the low level of large-scale investment in the Russian economy. The economic revival of Russia is impossible without major capital investments in the strategic spheres of the economy.
A threat to Russia's security in the social sphere, in consequence of the critical condition of the economy, is posed by the increase in the proportion of the population living below the poverty line, the stratification of society into a small group of rich citizens and the vast bulk of poorly-off citizens, and the escalation of social tension.
The growth of negative phenomena in the social sphere leads to a reduction in Russia's intellectual and production potential, a decline in population numbers, and the depletion of the main sources of spiritual and economic development, and could lead to the loss of democratic gains. The formulation of a national social program is necessary in order to eliminate this threat.
The threat posed by the depletion of natural resources and the deterioration of the environmental situation in the country is directly dependent on the level of economic development and society's readiness to recognize the global nature and importance of these problems. This threat is particularly great for Russia because of the preferential development of the fuel and energy sectors of industry, the underdeveloped legislative basis for nature conservation measures and their high resource-intensiveness, the absence or limited use of environmentally sound technologies, and the low level of environmental awareness. There is an increasing trend toward the use of Russia's territory as a burial place for environmentally dangerous materials and substances and toward the siting of harmful production facilities on Russian territory.
The slackening of state oversight and the absence of effective legal and economic mechanisms for the prevention of emergencies and elimination of their consequences increase the risk of man-made disasters in all spheres of economic activity.
The negative processes in the economy exacerbate the centrifugal tendencies of Russian Federation components and lead to the growth of the threat of violation of the country's territorial integrity and the unity of its legal area.
The factors intensifying the threat of the growth of nationalism and national and regional separatism include mass migration and the uncontrolled reproduction of human resources in a number of regions of the country. The main reasons for this are the consequences of the USSR's breakup into national-territorial formations, the failures of nationalities policy and economic policy both in Russia and in the CIS states, and the spread and escalation of conflict situations based on national and ethnic grounds.
Other factors are the deliberate and purposeful interference by foreign states and international organizations in the internal life of Russia's peoples, and the weakening of the role of Russian as the state language of the Russian Federation.
The adoption by Russian Federation components of normative legal acts and decisions that are at variance with the Russian Federation Constitution and federal legislation is becoming an increasingly dangerous factor eroding the single legal area of the country.
The threat of criminalization of the social relations that are taking shape in the process of the reform of the socio-political system and economic activity takes on a particular urgency. The mistakes made in the initial stage of the implementation of reforms in the economic, military, law-enforcement, and other spheres of state activity, the weakening of the system of state regulation and control, the imperfect legal base and the absence of a strong state social policy, and the lowering of the spiritual and moral standard of society are objective factors helping to preserve crime and corruption.
The consequences of these errors are manifested in the weakening of legal monitoring of the situation in the country, the fusion of the executive and legislative branches with criminal structures, and their penetration into the sphere of management of the banking business, major production facilities, trade organizations, and commodity production networks. The criminal world has in essence thrown down a challenge to the state, entering into open competition with it. Therefore the fight against crime and corruption is not only legal, but also political in nature.
As a result of the large-scale, often conflict-ridden division of property and the aggravation of the struggle for power on the basis of group, political-ideological, and ethno-nationalist interests, the threat of terrorism is increasing. The weakness of preventive measures for averting criminal phenomena, legal nihilism, and the outflow of skilled cadres from the organs for safeguarding law and order are increasing the degree of this threat's impact on society.
The threat to the nation's physical health is perturbing. Its sources lie in virtually all spheres of the state's life and activity and are manifested most graphically in the critical state of the systems for health care and the population's social protection and in the rapid rise in the consumption of alcohol and narcotics.
The consequences of this profound systemic crisis are the drastic reduction in the birth rate and average life expectancy, the deterioration in people's health, the distortion of the demographic and social composition of society, the undermining of manpower resources as the basis for the development of production, and the weakening of the fundamental cell of society -- the family.
This development of demographic processes is causing a reduction in society's spiritual, moral, and creative potential.
The threat of the emergence or aggravation in the CIS states of political, ethnic, and economic crises capable of delaying or destroying the integration process is acquiring special importance for our state.
These countries' establishment as friendly, independent, stable, and democratic countries is extremely important to the Russian Federation.
The proliferation of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction and the technologies for their production and means of delivery poses a serious threat, primarily in countries adjacent to Russia or regions close to it.
At the same time the spectrum of threats connected with international terrorism, including with the possible use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction, is expanding.
The conservation or creation by major powers (and their coalitions) of powerful groupings of armed forces in regions adjacent to Russia's territory remains a threat to Russia's national security in the defense sphere. Even when there are no aggressive intentions with regard to Russia, these groupings present a potential military danger.
NATO's expansion to the East and its transformation into a dominant military-political force in Europe create the threat of a new split in the continent which would be extremely dangerous given the preservation in Europe of mobile strike groupings of troops and nuclear weapons and also the inadequate effectiveness of multilateral mechanisms for maintaining peace.
The technological upsurge of a number of leading world powers and the buildup of their potential for creating new-generation arms and military equipment could lead to a qualitatively new stage in the development of the arms race.
Threats to the Russian Federation's national security in the defense sphere also lie in the incomplete nature of the process of the reform of the state's military organization, the continuing gulf between political aims and their implementation in military and military-technical policy, inadequate financing for national defense, the lack of elaboration of modern approaches toward military organizational development, and the imperfection of its normative legal base.
At the present stage this is manifested in the extremely acute nature of social problems in the Russian Federation Armed Forces and other troops and military formations and organs, the critically low level of operational and combat training of the troops (forces) and staffs, the intolerable decline in the level of provision of the troops (forces) with modern and promising types of weapons and military equipment and in general in the reduction of the state's potential for safeguarding the Russian Federation's security.
A trend has emerged toward the buildup of the threat of foreign intelligence services' agent and operational-technical penetration of Russia. The organs of state power, political parties and other public associations, banks and other credit organizations, industrial enterprises, scientific research organizations, and the mass media are becoming targets for their activity. The results of this activity could be the intensification of resistance toward the course chosen by Russia, the undermining of its economy through involvement in unprofitable trade and economic deals, irrational military-technical cooperation, the development of scientific research and experimental design work in unpromising fields, Russia's involvement in regional conflicts, and the destabilization of the domestic political situation in the country.
An analysis of the threats to the Russian Federation's national security shows that the main ones right now and in the foreseeable future do not have a military orientation and are of a predominantly internal nature and are concentrated in the domestic political, economic, social, environmental, information, and spiritual spheres.
The development of qualitatively new relations with the world's leading states and the virtual absence of the threat of large-scale aggression against Russia while its nuclear deterrent potential is preserved make it possible to redistribute the resources of the state and society to resolve acute domestic problems on a priority basis.
Safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security through joint targeted activity by state and public institutions and also by citizens taking part in the detection and prevention of various threats to the security of the individual, society, and the state and in their countering is a binding and essential condition for the effective defense of Russia's national interests.
The main avenues of the activity of the state and society in safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security are:
The main aim of safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security is the creation and maintenance of an economic, political, international, and military-strategic position for the country which creates favorable conditions for the development of the individual, society, and state and rules out the danger of the weakening of the Russian Federation's role and importance as a subject of international law and the undermining of the state's ability to implement its national interests in the international arena.
The most important tasks for safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security are:
The basic principles for safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security are:
The safeguarding of Russia's security and the protection of its national interests in the economic sphere are the main content of the state's policy aimed at boosting the economy and implementing an independent and socially oriented economic course.
Here tasks like the elimination of distortions in the structure of the Russian economy and the overcoming of the progressive reduction in the production of highly processed output, and support for sectors which are the basis for expanded reproduction and for the safeguarding of the population's employment are advanced to the fore.
For that it is essential to step up state support for investment and innovatory activity, to take steps to facilitate access for enterprises to long-term credits for financing capital investments, and to exercise real state support for targeted programs for the structural restructuring of industry.
The most important tasks in the field of ensuring economic security are the preferential development of competitive sectors and production facilities and the steady expansion of the market for high-technology output. To that end steps should be taken encouraging the transfer of new military technologies to civilian production and a mechanism should be introduced to uncover and support the assimilation of progressive technologies whose development will ensure the competitiveness of Russian enterprises on the world market.
This presupposes the concentration of financial and material resources along priority avenues for the development of science and technology, support for leading scientific schools, incentives to attract private capital on the basis of organizing funds and utilizing grants, the implementation of programs for the development of territories with a high concentration of scientific and technical potential, the creation with state support of infrastructures ensuring the commercialization of the results of scientific research studies with simultaneous protection of intellectual property within the country and abroad, and the development of a universally accessible network of scientific, technical, and commercial information.
The state promotes the establishment and development of private enterprise in all spheres where this might help the growth of social prosperity, creates equal conditions for economic competition between enterprises in all forms of ownership, and ensures protection of consumer rights, an adequate level of social guarantees, conditions for progress in science and education and for society's spiritual and moral development, and the effective operation of mechanisms of market self-organization.
It is necessary to introduce certain restrictions on the activity of foreign banking and insurance companies and on the transfer of deposits of non-renewable natural resources, telecommunications, and transportation and commodity-carrying networks for exploitation by foreign enterprises.
Foreign companies must not be allowed to establish control over strategically important sectors of the economy, the defense industry, or natural monopolies.
It is necessary to elaborate and implement targeted programs for the economic upsurge of depressed regions and to introduce preferential conditions for economic activity, including preferential rates for transportation and communications services ensuring the unity of the country's economic area.
In conditions of foreign trade liberalization, it is necessary to protect the interests of the country's producers in the foreign market.
The state must decisively strive to eliminate discriminatory restrictions on the importation of Russian products into developed countries in the West, and it must not allow the imposition of any political decisions on Russia which might inflict economic or moral damage on its citizens and enterprises.
The creation of favorable conditions for the Russian economy's international integration and for the expansion of markets for Russian products constitutes an important task in the sphere of foreign trade activity. It is necessary to advance further along the path of forming a single economic area with CIS member countries and to dismantle the trade barriers erected in the way of cooperation with former CEMA countries.
Effective measures must be adopted in the sphere of foreign currency regulation with a view to creating the conditions to stop settlements in foreign currency in the domestic market and preventing the uncontrolled exportation of capital. For this purpose, and in parallel with ensuring macro-economic stabilization, it is necessary to form an effective system of foreign currency control and oversight to ensure compliance with Russian Federation legislation in foreign economic activity.
In the international financial sphere it is necessary to pursue a balanced credit and finance policy aimed at the stage-by-stage reduction of Russia's dependence on credit borrowing and at the consolidation of its positions in international financial and economic organizations.
The organization of the work of federal organs of executive power and the organs of executive power in Russian Federation components to implement specific measures aimed at preventing and overcoming the threats to Russia's national interests in the economic sphere also requires further improvement of Russian Federation legislation and the ensuring of strict compliance with it by all economically active bodies.
The strengthening of society's socio-political stability is a most important factor for achieving efficiency in the measures undertaken by the state to ensure the Russian Federation's national security. The basis of this stability must be, in addition to economic upsurge, public accord regarding the ways to consolidate federalism and strengthen inter-ethnic relations in the country.
The idea of national and social accord, expressed through private, public, corporate, national and social interests, will create additional conditions for forming a socially oriented market economy, will become a most powerful instrument for struggle against nationalism and ethnic and regional separatism, and will promote society's consolidation in the interests of Russia's development.
The strengthening of the unity and solidarity of peoples in multi-ethnic Russia provides the basis for the education of its citizens and must become a most important principle for the development of social relations and the country's modern culture.
The implementation of the idea of national and social accord will enable our country to enter the new age as a power which has achieved economic and spiritual progress and enjoys a high growth potential based on democratic principles of state structure, internal harmony of social relations, and responsibility for the maintenance of global stability and stable development of pan-human civilization.
The strengthening of Russian statehood and the improvement and development of federalism and local self-government are most important tasks whose solution will lead to the ensuring of the Russian Federation's national security. The main objective in this sphere is to elaborate and implement a comprehensive approach toward the solution of legal, economic, social, and ethno-political problems while ensuring that the interests of the Russian Federation and its components are observed.
The implementation of the constitutional principle of people's power, under which the multi-ethnic people exercise their power both directly and through organs of state power and organs of local self- government, requires the ensuring of coordinated functioning and collaboration by all organs of state power, a rigid vertical structure of executive power, and unity of Russia's judicial system. This is ensured through the constitutional principle of the separation of powers, the introduction of a more clear-cut functional distribution of powers among state institutions, and the strengthening of Russia's federal structure by improving its treaty relations with Russian Federation components within the framework of their constitutional status.
The strengthening of Russian statehood presupposes the enhancement of the state's role in the basic spheres of social life, the improvement of Russian Federation legislation as the universal basis of state activity in the conditions of building a rule-of-law state, the ensuring of the supremacy of the Russian Federation Constitution and federal laws over other legal acts, the formation and development of organizational and legal mechanisms to prevent breaches of the laws, and the adoption and execution of state decisions in crisis situations.
The building of a rule-of-law state depends largely on the correct definition and clarification of the extent of the responsibilities and powers of organs of state power, the specific categories and status of promulgated normative legal acts, the procedure for their amendment or repeal, the improvement of the mechanism and procedures for mutual relations between state and society, and the procedure for taking into account the interests of Russian Federation components.
The protection of Russian federalism includes purposeful activity to block any encroachments on the country's state integrity, the system of organs of state power, and the unity of Russia's legal area.
The main objective of the protection of Russian federalism is to prevent the transformation of federal relations into confederal ones.
The main avenues for the protection of Russian federalism are:
The efforts of society and the state in the struggle against crime must be aimed at creating an effective counteraction system to ensure reliable protection of the interests of the individual, society, and the state.
The following tasks are paramount:
Glasnost is the most important condition for a successful struggle against all manifestations of crime. Society is entitled to know about the decisions and measures adopted by organs of state power in this sphere.
They must be open, specific, and comprehensible to all citizens, they must be preventive, they must ensure the equality of all before the law and the inevitability of punishment, and they must rely on society's support.
In order to prevent and combat crime, it is primarily necessary to develop the legal infrastructure as the basis of the reliable protection of citizens' rights and legitimate interests, as well as to observe Russia's international law commitments in the sphere of the struggle against crime and protection of human rights. It is important to deprive crime of the breeding ground created as a result of shortcomings in legislation and the crisis in the economy and the social sphere. It is necessary to make more active use of the methods of operational and investigative activity to eliminate the corrupt links of organized crime.
With a view to preventing corruption in the state apparatus and eliminating the conditions for legitimizing capital accumulated by criminal means, it is necessary to create an effective system of financial monitoring and inspecting the property status, sources of income, and expenditures of officials and other state employees.
The struggle against terrorism, drug trafficking, and smuggling is an important component of ensuring both the Russian Federation's national security and the security of the world community as a whole. The crisis situation in society and the economy, the existence of contradictions in interstate and inter-confessional relations, and the flaws in the normative legal base which regulates disputed international and regional problems -- all this promotes the emergence of these types of criminal activity on Russian Federation territory and dictates the need to elaborate a special package of countermeasures.
The struggle against terrorism, drug trafficking, and smuggling -- all of which are evolving into a global international phenomenon -- must be waged by using the potential of all branches of state power on the basis of broad cooperation between Russian Federation services and their counterparts in other countries at interstate level. The main factor in successfully countering these categories of crime is the elimination of the causes which engender them.
Special attention must be given to the use of the mass media in propagandizing the work experience of creative and teacher training schools, cultural and ethnic centers, communities, unions, and other institutions, including institutions for children, adolescents, young people, and students, as well as to propagandizing the ethnic cultures of Russia's peoples and the spiritual, moral, and historical traditions and norms of social life.
A most important role in the preservation of traditional spiritual values is played by the activity of the Russian Orthodox Church and the churches of other confessions. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the destructive role played by sundry religious sects which inflict considerable damage on Russian society's spiritual life and pose a direct threat to the life and health of Russia's citizens, and are often used as cover for illegal activities.
Society's spiritual rebirth is impossible without enhancing the role of the Russian language. Its proclamation as state language and the language of international contacts between the peoples of Russia and of CIS member states is a most important factor for unifying the people of multi-ethnic Russia.
With a view to ensuring the preservation and development of our cultural and spiritual heritage, it is necessary to create the best possible economic conditions for pursuing the most important categories of creative activity.
The ensuring of the Russian Federation's national security in the sphere of protecting and improving the health of citizens presupposes greater attention by society and by legislative (representative) and executive organs of state power in the Russian Federation to the development of state (federal and municipal) social and private medical services, the pursuit of state protectionism for the country's medical and pharmaceutical industries, and priority funding for health care and federal programs in the spheres of public health and epidemiology, children's health care, emergency medical services, and disaster medicine.
Since the solution of ecological security problems demands considerable funding, it is necessary to ensure stable finances, the sources of which must be provided by budgets at all levels.
In order to enhance the effectiveness of environmental protection activity, there is a need for urgent measures including the adoption of legislative acts ensuring the legal basis of ecological security, organizational and administrative measures aimed at improving the management of environmental protection activity in the country, and the implementation of ecological feasibility studies for all programs and projects elaborated at federal and regional level.
Russia does not intend to enter into confrontation with any state or alliance of states whatsoever, nor does it pursue hegemonistic or expansionist goals. As an influential Eurasian power, it will support relations of partnership with all interested world community countries.
The Russian Federation's foreign policy gives priority to ensuring the most important national interests, developing Russia's relations with leading states in the world, comprehensive cooperation and integration within the CIS framework, organizing effective bilateral and multilateral cooperation within the framework of the Union of Belarus and Russia and with the parties to the Treaty Between the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Kyrgyzstan on the Deepening of Integration in the Economic and Humanitarian Spheres.
The deepening and development of relations with CIS member states is a most important factor promoting the settlement of ethno-political and inter-ethnic conflicts, ensuring socio-political stability along Russia's borders, and ultimately preventing centrifugal phenomena within Russia itself.
Russia is also interested in fully equal participation in world, European, and Asian economic and political structures. Therefore, in its striving for mutually advantageous cooperation, the Russian Federation will continue to develop constructive partnership with the United States, the EU, China, Japan, India, and other states. This is in line with the Russian Federation's political and economic interests and will ensure an opportunity for Russia's full-scale inclusion in all organizations and institutions for collective management of global political processes.
The creation of a model for ensuring global, regional, and subregional security geared to the 21st century and based on the principles of equality and indivisible security for all must become an absolute condition for the implementation of Russia's foreign policy efforts. This presupposes the creation of a fundamentally new system of European-Atlantic security in which the OSCE will play a coordinating role; the stepping up of efforts to create multilateral structures ensuring cooperation in the sphere of international security in the Asia-Pacific region and South Asia; Russia's active participation as permanent member of the UN Security Council in the settlement and prevention of regional crises and conflicts; further improvement of the regime of international arms control and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery vehicles; and firm protection of the legitimate rights and interests of Russian citizens living abroad in strict compliance with the norms of international law.
One important avenue for the Russian Federation's activity to ensure its national security in the foreign policy sphere is to assist in the settlement of regional and local conflicts through peace-keeping activity.
In this process it is necessary to make maximum use of collective efforts along this avenue by the CIS, the United Nations, and the OSCE in the long term.
Russia will firmly and consistently honor its commitments in the sphere of reduction and elimination of weapons of mass destruction and conventional armaments, will implement measures to strengthen confidence and stability and to ensure international monitoring of deliveries of military technologies and dual-purpose technologies, and will assist in the creation of zones free from weapons of mass destruction.
The Russian Federation will also direct its efforts in ensuring national security in the foreign policy sphere into resolving problems of international and economic cooperation, first and foremost from the viewpoint of strengthening its positions in international financial and economic organizations.
The nature of these threats requires the clarification of the tasks of the Russian Federation Armed Forces and other troops, military formations, and organs, the optimization of their structure and composition, the expansion of their professional nucleus, and the improvement of the legal bases and planning mechanism for military organizational development and the formulation of up-to- date approaches to economic and financial support for it in the light of the need to form a collective security system within the CIS framework.
Russia does not seek to maintain parity in arms and armed forces with the leading states of the world, and is oriented toward the implementation of the principle of realistic deterrence, at the basis of which is the determination to make appropriate use of the available military might to avert aggression. In seeking to avert war and armed conflict, the Russian Federation gives preference to political, economic, and other nonmilitary means. However, until the non-use of force becomes the norm in international relations, the Russian Federation's national interests require the existence of a military might sufficient for its defense.
The Russian Federation Armed Forces are the basis of the state's military organization. They play the main role in safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security by means of force.
The most important task for the Russian Federation Armed Forces is to ensure nuclear deterrence in the interests of preventing both nuclear and conventional large-scale or regional wars, and to implement alliance commitments.
In order to perform this task the Russian Federation must have nuclear forces with the potential to guarantee the infliction of the required damage on any aggressor state or coalition of states.
The protection of the state's national interests requires comprehensive counteraction of military threats on a regional and local scale. The Russian Federation Armed Forces in their peacetime combat composition should be capable of ensuring the reliable defense of the country against air and space attack and the performance of tasks to rebuff aggression in a local war, and of deploying a grouping of troops (forces) to perform tasks in a regional war. At the same time the Russian Federation Armed Forces must ensure the Russian Federation's implementation of peace-keeping activity both in its own right and within international organizations.
The interests of ensuring Russia's national security and the evolution of the geopolitical situation in the world predetermine, in certain circumstances, the need for Russia's military presence in certain strategically important regions of the world. The stationing of limited troop contingents (military bases) there on a treaty basis and on the principles of partnership should demonstrate the Russian Federation's readiness to fulfill its alliance commitments, promote the formation of a stable military-strategic balance of forces in the regions, and give the Russian Federation the potential to react to a crisis situation at the initial stages of its emergence.
The long-term objectives of ensuring the Russian Federation's national security determine the need for wide participation by Russia in peace-keeping operations. The implementation of such operations should be an important means of preventing or eliminating crisis situations at the stage of their emergence and development.
Ensuring the Russian Federation's national security in the defense sphere requires its participation in the treaty process for nuclear and conventional arms reduction and control of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivery.
A most important area in ensuring the Russian Federation's national security in the defense sphere is the clarification and optimization of the tasks of the system of ensuring national security. In performing tasks in preventing and countering internal threats to the Russian Federation's national security, priority belongs to the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian Federation Federal Security Service, and the Russian Federation Ministry for Civil Defense, Emergencies, and Natural Disasters, which must have the appropriate forces, resources, and organs capable of fulfilling specialized tasks.
The restructuring of defense industry potential with minimum losses to [use] new technologies and scientific-technical potential, the amalgamation of companies that develop and manufacture arms and the most important types of civilian output and the creation of world-standard corporations and firms on their basis, support for and development of research, experimental, and design work, the modernization of arms and military equipment, and the introduction into practice of a system of orders for arms and military equipment that meets today's needs should be directed toward improving the defense industry complex in the interests of ensuring the Russian Federation's national security.
It is also necessary to improve cooperation in the military-technical sphere, which will give Russia the opportunity to represent its interests on new international markets.
The human factor and the social status of the serviceman plays a special role in ensuring the Russian Federation's national security in the defense sphere. Therefore the tasks that come to the fore are such tasks as the implementation of a range of measures to ensure social protection of servicemen, increase the prestige of military service, and develop public awareness in the spirit of the need for the armed protection of the country's national interests and the mobilization of the efforts and potential of the state, society, and the citizen for the implementation of military reform.
The Russian Federation examines the possibility of using military force to safeguard its national security on the basis of the following principles:
A most important condition for safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security in the defense sphere must be the targeted allocation of budget resources for the program-driven development of forces, systems, and organs carrying out the defense of Russia's national interests by forcible methods.
Particular importance for safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security is attached to the timely detection of threats and determination of their source. This is achieved by continuous tracking -- with the Russian Federation Foreign Intelligence Service playing the coordinating role -- of the political, military, economic, informational, technological, social, and other external threats which affect the Russian Federation's national security and the condition and combat readiness of its Armed Forces and other troops, troop formations, and organs. The significance of counter-intelligence activity in safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security is also growing.
The safeguarding of the Russian Federation's national interests and security on its state border and in the border area presupposes the improvement of the formalization of the Russian Federation's state border in international law, the development of interstate border cooperation, and the implementation of collective security measures on the external borders of the CIS member states.
The most important tasks here are:
The system for safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security is created and developed in accordance with the Russian Federation Constitution, federal laws, Russian Federation presidential edicts and directives, Russian Federation Security Council decisions, Russian Federation Government decrees and directives, and federal programs in this field.
The foundation of the system for safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security consists of national security organs, forces, and systems implementing measures of a political, legal, organizational, economic, military, and other nature aimed at safeguarding the security of the individual, society, and the state.
The powers of organs and forces for the safeguarding of the Russian Federation's national security and their composition and structure are defined by corresponding Russian Federation federal acts. The creation of organs and forces for the safeguarding of the Russian Federation's national security which are not prescribed by federal laws, and also the use of unlawful means of safeguarding national security are not permitted.
Special significance in safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security is attached to the organization of the system for the preparation and adoption of preemptive decisions to protect the country's national interests.
The following participate in the determination and implementation of national security policy:
The Russian Federation Security Council is responsible to the Russian Federation president for the timely identification of threats to the Russian Federation's national security and for the preparation of prompt decisions to avert emergencies and formulate basic guidelines for the strategy for safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security; Federal organs of executive power -- They ensure the observance of Russian Federation legislation and the fulfillment of decisions of the Russian Federation president, the Russian Federation Government, and the Russian Federation Security Council and of federal programs, plans, and directives in the field of safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security; and, within the limits of their powers, formulate statutory legal acts on the safeguarding of national security and submit them to the Russian Federation Security Council;
The Russian Federation president, the Federation Council and State Duma of the Russian Federation Federal Assembly, the Russian Federation Government, the Russian Federation Security Council, federal organs of state power, Russian Federation components' organs of state power, and organs of local self-government operate within the limits of their powers and coordinate efforts with a view to safeguarding the Russian Federation's national security.
In the event of the emergence of a direct threat to the Russian Federation's national security the Russian Federation Security Council formulates the necessary proposals for adopting decisions.
The Russian Federation intends to resolutely and firmly strengthen its national security on the basis of both historical experience and the positive experience of the country's democratic development. The legal democratic institutions that have been created, the structure of Russian Federation organs of state power that has become established, and the extensive participation of political parties and public associations in formulating the strategy for safeguarding national security make it possible to safeguard the Russian Federation's national security and progressive development in the 21st century.
As Russia continues to develop and a new system of international relations based on equal partnership is formed and strengthens, individual provisions of the Russian Federation National Security Blueprint will be augmented, clarified, and concretized in the Russian Federation president's annual messages to the Russian Federation Federal Assembly.