National Security Concept of the Russian Federation
Full English translation from Rossiiskaya Gazeta, January 18, 2000
Approved by Presidential Decree No. 1300 of 17 December 1999 (given in the wording of Presidential Decree No. 24 of 10 January 2000)
The national security concept of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Concept) constitutes a system of views on ensuring the security of the individual, society and the state from external and internal threats in all spheres of life in the Russian Federation. The Concept formulated the key directions of the state policy of the Russian Federation.
The national security of the Russian Federation is interpreted as the security of its multinational people as the bearer of sovereignty and the only source of power in the Russian Federation.
I. Russia in the World Community
The situation in the world is noted for a dynamic transformation of the system of international relations. Two mutually excluding trends dominate them now that the age of bipolar confrontation is over.
The first trend is seen in the strengthening of economic and political positions of a considerable number of states and their integration associations, and in the improvement of the mechanisms of multilateral guidance of international processes.
Economic, political, research-technical, ecological and information factors are coming to play an ever greater role.
Russia will facilitate the development of an ideology of the creation of a multipolar world on this basis.
The second trend is seen in the attempt to create a structure of international relations based on the domination of developed Western countries, led by the USA, in the international community and providing for unilateral solution of the key problems of global politics, above all with the use of military force, in violation of the fundamental norms of international law.
The development of international relations is accompanied with competition and the striving of some countries to reinforce their influence on world politics, in particular by creating mass destruction weapons. The significance of military force in international relations remains considerable.
Russia is one of the world's largest countries, with a long history and rich cultural traditions. Despite the complicated international situation and internal problems, it continues to objectively play an important role in world processes, in view of its considerable economic, research-technical and military potential and unique situation on the Eurasian continent.
In the future, Russia will become deeper integrated into the world economy and develop its collaboration with international economic and financial institutes. Objectively, there is a community of the interests of Russia and the interests of other states on many problems of international security, including resistance to the proliferation of mass destruction weapons, prevention and settlement of regional conflicts, struggle with international terrorism and drug trafficking, the solution of acute global ecological problems, including problems of ensuring nuclear and radiation safety.
At the same time, some states have stepped up their efforts to weaken Russia's positions in the political, economic, military and other spheres. The attempts to ignore the interests of Russia when tackling major problems of international relations, including conflict situations, can undermine international security and stability and slow down the ongoing positive changes in international relations.
The problem of terrorism, which is transnational in nature and threatens stability in the world, has grown in many countries, including the Russian Federation, which calls for pooling the efforts of the international community and raising the effectiveness of the available forms and methods of combating this threat and taking emergency measures to neutralise it.
II. The National Interests of Russia
The national interests of Russia is a combination of balanced interests of the individual, society and the state in the economic, domestic political, social, international, information, military, border, ecological and other spheres. They are long-term and determine the basic goals, strategic and current tasks of the domestic and foreign policy of the country.
National interests are ensured by the institutes of state power, which operate, in particular, jointly with the public organisations working on the basis of the Constitution and legislation of the Russian Federation.
The interests of the individual boil down to the implementation of constitutional rights and freedoms, the ensurance of personal security, the raising of the quality and standards of life, and physical, spiritual and intellectual development of the man and citizen.
The interests of society boil down to the development of democracy, the creation of a social state ruled by law, the attainment and maintenance of social accord, and the spiritual renewal of Russia.
The interests of the state boil down to the inviolability of the constitutional regime, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia, political, economic and social stability, the unquestionable ensurance of legality and the maintenance of law and order, and the development of equitable and mutually beneficial international cooperation.
The implementation of the national interests of Russia is possible only on the basis of stable economic development. This is why the national interests of Russia in this sphere are key to all other interests.
In the domestic political sphere, the national interests of Russia boil down to maintaining the stability of the constitutional regime and the institutes of state power, ensuring civic peace and national accord, territorial integrity and the integrity of the legal space, law and order, the completion of the development of a democratic society, as well as the neutralisation of the reasons and conditions, which facilitate the appearance of political and religious extremism, ethnic separatism and their consequences, namely social, ethnic and religious conflicts and terrorism.
The national interests of Russia in the social sphere boil down to ensuring high living standards for the people.
National interests in the spiritual life boil down to maintaining and developing the moral values of society, the traditions of patriotism and humanism, and the cultural and research potential of the country.
The national interests of Russia in the international sphere boil down to ensuring the sovereignty and reinforcing the position of Russia as a great power and one of the influential centres of the multipolar world, developing equitable and mutually beneficial relations with all countries and integration associations, above all the countries members of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Russia's traditional partners, all-round respect for human rights and freedoms and inadmissibility of double standards in this sphere.
The national interests of Russia in the information sphere boil down to compliance with the constitutional civil rights and freedoms in acquiring and using information, the development of modern telecommunication technologies, and the protection of state information resources from unwarranted access.
The national interests of Russia in the military sphere boil down to the protection of its independence, sovereignty, state and territorial integrity, the prevention of a military aggression against Russia and its allies, and the creation of conditions for a peaceful, democratic development of the state.
The national interests of Russia in the border sphere boil down to the creation of political, legal, organisational and other conditions necessary for ensuring a reliable protection of the state borders of the Russian Federation, and compliance with the procedure and rules of economic and other forms of operation in the border space of the Russian Federation as stipulated by the Russian legislation.
The national interests of Russia in the ecological sphere boil down to the maintenance and improvement of the environment.
The key elements of the national interests of Russia are the protection of the individual, society and the state from terrorism, including international terrorism, and emergency situations of the natural and technogenic nature and their consequences, as well as from the dangers arising from hostilities or as the consequence of such hostilities in wartime.
III. Threats to the National Security of Russia
The current situation in the Russian economy, the inadequate organisation of state power and the civic society, the socio-political polarisation of Russian society and the spread to crime to social relations, the growth of organised crime and terrorism, the aggravation of national and deterioration of international relations create a wide range of internal and external threats to the national security of the country.
Threats in the economic sphere are comprehensive and determined above all by the considerable reduction of the domestic gross product, the investment and innovation activities and research-technical potential, the stagnation of the agrarian sector, the unbalanced bank system, the growing domestic and foreign debts, and the domination of fuel, energy and raw materials in Russia's exports, and of foods and consumer goods, including basic necessities, in imports.
The weakening of the research-technical and technological potential of the country, dwindling research in the strategic spheres of research-technical progress, the exodus of specialists and intellectual property abroad threaten Russia with the loss of leading positions in the world, the degradation of science-intensive industries, growing technological development on foreign countries, and the weakening of its defence ability.
Negative economic processes underlie the separatist trends in some members of the Russian Federation. This aggravates political instability, weakens the common economic space of Russia and its key component parts, namely the industrial- technological and transport contacts, the financial-banking, credit and tax systems.
Economic disintegration, social differentiation of society and devaluation of spiritual values contribute to the growth of tensions in relations between the regions and the centre and threaten the federative system and the socio-economic structure of the Russian Federation.
Ethnic egotism, ethnic centrism and chauvinism, for which some public organisations are noted, as well as uncontrolled migration facilitate the growth of nationalism, political and religious extremism and ethnic separatism, and create conditions for the development of conflicts.
The common legal space of the country is being undermined by neglect for the principle of the domination of the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation over other legal norms, of federal legal norms over the legal norms of the members of the Russian Federation, and by inadequate state guidance at different levels.
The threat of spreading crime to social relations, which are developing in the process of the reform of the socio-political system and economic operation of the country, is becoming particularly great. Major mistakes made at the initial stage of reforms in the economic, military, law-enforcement and other spheres of state operation, the weakening of the system of state regulation and control, the inadequate legal base and the absence of a strong state policy in the social sphere, and the dwindling spiritual and moral potential of society are the basic factors facilitating the growth of crime, especially organised crime, and corruption.
The consequences of these mistakes can be seen in the weakening of legal control over the situation in the country, the integration of some elements of the executive and legislative branches of power with criminal structures, the spread of crime to the control of banking and big business, major enterprises, trade establishments and producer networks. Consequently, the struggle against organised crime and corruption is not just a legal, but a political task.
The scale of terrorism and organised crime grows owing to the frequent conflicts over the change of the form of property, the growing struggle for power on the basis of group and ethnic-national interests. The absence of an effective system for social prevention of transgression, the inadequate legal material and technical base of the efforts to prevent terrorism and organised crime, legal nihilism, and the exodus of qualified personnel from the law-enforcement agencies increase the influence of this threat on the individual, society and the state.
The stratification of society into a small group of rich and the overwhelming majority of low-income citizens, the growth in the number of citizens who live below the poverty line and the growth of unemployment pose a threat to the national security of Russia in the social sphere.
The crisis of the health and social protection systems, the growth of alcohol consumption and drug addiction threaten the physical health of the nation.
The consequences of the deep social crisis are the dramatic reduction of the birth rate and life expectancy in the country, the distortion of the demographic and social structure of society, the depletion of the labour resources as the basis of the development of industries, the weakening of the family as the fundamental element of society, and the fall of the spiritual, moral and creative potential of the population.
The deepening of the crisis in the domestic political, social and spiritual spheres can result in the loss of democratic achievements.
The main threats in the international sphere are determined by the following factors:
* the striving of individual states and inter-state associations to lower the role of the existing mechanisms of ensuring international security, above all the UN and the OSCE;
* the danger of weakening the political, economic and military influence of Russia in the world;
* the strengthening of military-political blocs and unions, above all the eastward enlargement of NATO;
* the possible appearance of foreign military bases and large military contingents in direct proximity to the Russian borders;
* the proliferation of mass destruction weapons and their delivery vehicles;
* the weakening of the integration processes in the Commonwealth of Independent States;
* the appearance and escalation of conflicts close to the state borders of the Russian Federation and the external borders of countries members of the Commonwealth of Independent States;
* claims to the territory of the Russian Federation.
Threats to the national security of the Russian Federation in the international sphere can be seen in the attempts of other states to hinder the strengthening of Russia as a centre of influence in the multipolar world, prevent the implementation of its national interests and weaken its positions in Europe, the Middle East, the Transcaucasus, Central Asia and Asia Pacific.
Terrorism poses a serious threat to the national security of the Russian Federation. International terrorism has launched an open campaign designed to destabilise the situation in Russia.
There are growing threats to the national security of the Russian Federation in the information sphere. There is a major threat in the striving of some countries to dominate the world information space and oust Russia from the foreign and domestic information market; the elaboration by some countries of a concept of information wars, which provides for the creation of means of dangerous influence on the information spheres of other world countries; the disruption of the normal operation of the information and telecommunication systems and of the safety of the information resources, as well as attempts to gain unwarranted access to them.
The level and scales of military threats have been growing.
The transition of NATO to the use of force (military force) beyond the zone of its responsibility and without the sanction of the UN Security Council, which has been elevated to the level of a strategic doctrine, is fraught with the destabilisation of the strategic situation in the world.
The growing technological surge of some leading powers and their growing possibilities to create new-generation weapons and military hardware are creating prerequisites for a qualitatively new stage in the arms race and a dramatic change in the forms and methods of waging hostilities.
The operation of foreign special services and the organisations, which they are using, has been growing in scale on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The growth of negative trends in the military sphere is facilitated by the drawn-out reform of the military organisation and defence industries of the Russian Federation, the insufficient financing of national defences and the inadequate normative legal base. This can be seen now in the critically low standard of operational and combat training of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military formations and agencies, inadmissible fall in the provision of modern weapons, military and specialised hardware to the troops (forces), and extremely acute social problems, which negatively affects the military security of the Russian Federation as a whole.
Threats to the national security and interests of the Russian Federation in the border sphere are determined by:
* economic, demographic and cultural-religious expansion of the adjacent states into the Russian territory;
* the growing activity of the transborder organised crime and foreign terrorist organisations.
The threat of the deterioration of the ecological situation in the country and the depletion of its natural resources directly depend on the economic situation and the readiness of society to accept the global nature and significance of these problems. This threat is especially great in Russia owing to the priority development of the fuel and energy industries, the underdeveloped nature protection legislation, the absence or limited use of nature-saving technologies, and a low ecological culture. There is a trend for using the territory of Russia for processing and burial of materials and substances which present an environmental hazard.
In this situation, the weakening of state control and the low effectiveness of the legal and economic mechanisms of preventing and liquidating emergency situations increase the risk of technogenic catastrophes in all spheres of economic operation.
IV. The Ensurance of the National Security of the Russian Federation
The basic tasks in ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation are:
* prompt forecasting and exposure of external and internal threats to the national security of the Russian Federation;
* operational and long-term measures designed to prevent and neutralise internal and external threats;
* the ensurance of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation and the safety of its border space;
* the economic revival of the country and the pursuit of an independent and socially-oriented economic policy;
* the liquidation of the research-technical and technological dependence of the Russian Federation on foreign sources;
* the ensurance of personal security of the man and citizen and his constitutional rights and freedoms on the territory of Russia;
* the improvement of the system of state power of the Russian Federation, federative relations, local self-government and legislation of the Russian Federation, the development of harmonious ethnic relations, the strengthening of law and order and the maintenance of the socio-political stability in society;
* the ensurance of unconditional compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation by all citizens, officials, state agencies, political parties, public and religious organisations;
* equitable and mutually beneficial cooperation of Russia, above all, with the leading countries of the world;
* the revival of the country's military potential and its maintenance at a sufficiently high level;
* the strengthening of the regime of the non-proliferation of mass destruction weapons and their delivery vehicles' * effective measures to reveal, prevent and terminate the intelligence and subversive operation of foreign states directed against the Russian Federation;
* a dramatic improvement of the ecological situation in the country.
The ensurance of national security and the protection of the interests of Russia in the economic sphere are the priority directions of the state policy.
The key foreign economic tasks are:
* to create favourable conditions for the international integration of the Russian economy;
* to gain more markets for Russian commodities;
* to create a common economic space of the countries members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
In conditions of the liberalisation of Russia's foreign trade and growing competition on the world market of commodities and services, we should give more protection to the interests of national producers.
Of key significance is to pursue a balanced credit-financial policy, designed to gradually reduce the dependence of Russia on external loans and strengthen its stand in international financial-economic organisations.
The state must play a larger part in the regulation of the operation of foreign bank, insurance and investment companies, and certain substantiated limits must be placed on the transfer to foreign companies of deposits of strategic natural resources, telecommunications, transportation and commodity-producing networks.
Effective measures must be taken in the sphere of currency regulation and control in order to create conditions for the termination of settlements in foreign currency on the domestic market and to prevent the uncontrollable withdrawal of capital from the country.
The basic directions of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation in the domestic economic sphere are:
* the legal ensurance of the reforms and the creation of an effective mechanism to monitor compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation;
* the strengthening of state regulation of the economy;
* the approval of requisite measures designed to overcome the consequences of the economic crisis, maintain and develop the research-technical, technological and production potential, to ensure economic growth while reducing the risk of technogenic catastrophes. to raise the competitiveness of Russian-made industrial commodities and the prosperity of the people.
A transition to a highly effective and socially-directed market economy should proceed through the gradual creation of optimal mechanisms of production organisation and distribution of commodities and services, designed to ensure the highest possible growth of the prosperity of society and each citizen.
The tasks gaining priority now are to liquidate distortions in the structure of the Russian economy, ensure a priority growth of the production of science-intensive and finished goods, help those industries which constitute the basis of expanded reproduction, and guaranteed employment.
Of major significance is to build up state assistance to investment and innovation activities, approve measures to create a stable banking system meeting the interests of the real economy sector, ensure greater access of the enterprises to long-term loans for the financing of capital investments, and to provide palpable state assistance to targeted programmes of industrial restructuring.
The priority tasks include the ensurance of the priority development of competitive industries and enterprises, and the expansion of the market of science-intensive products. To fulfil these tasks, we should approve measures designed to encourage the transfer of novel military technologies to civilian production, introduce a mechanism of revealing and developing progressive technologies, whose use would ensure the competitiveness of Russian enterprises on the world market.
The fulfilment of the above tasks provides for the concentration of financial and material resources in the priority spheres of the development of science and technology, the provision of assistance to the leading schools of research, the accelerated achievement of research-technical results and the creation of a national technological base, the use of private capital, including through the creation of funds and the use of grants, the implementation of development programmes in territories with a high research-technical potential, the creation (with the help of the state) of an infrastructure that would ensure the commercial use of research achievements and simultaneous protection of intellectual property at home and abroad, and the development of a generally available network of research-technical and commercial information.
The state should encourage the creation of equal conditions for the development and growth of competitiveness of enterprises irrespective of their form of ownership, including the development of private enterprise in all spheres where this would facilitate the growth of social prosperity, the progress of science and education, spiritual and moral development of society, and the protection of the rights of consumers.
We must quickly create mechanisms for the maintenance of life and ensuring economic development of the crisis and Extreme North regions, as well as a tariff policy that would ensure the integrity of the economic space of the country.
The priority of economic factors in the social sphere is of fundamental significance for strengthening the state, for ensuring social guarantees by the state, for the development of mechanisms of collective responsibility and democratic decision-making, and for social partnership. And while doing this, we should pursue a socially fair and economically effective policy of the distribution of incomes.
The organisation of the efforts of the federal bodies of executive authority and bodies of executive authority of members of the Russian Federation taken to implement practical measures in order to prevent and liquidate threats to the national interests of Russia in the economic sphere also implies the continued improvement of the Russian legislation in the said sphere and the ensurance of strict compliance of all economic agents with this legislation.
The rapprochement of the interests of the people living in Russia, the establishment of their all-round cooperation, the pursuit of a responsible and balanced state nationalities and regional policy will ensure domestic political stability in Russia. A comprehensive attitude to the fulfilment of these tasks should form the core of the domestic policy of the state that would ensure the development of the Russian Federation as a multinational, democratic federative state.
The strengthening of the Russian state, the improvement of federative relations and local self-government should help to reinforce the national security of the Russian Federation. We need a comprehensive attitude to the solution of legal, economic, social and ethno-political problems, with a balanced attitude to the interests of the Russian Federation and its members.
The application of the constitutional principle of government by the people calls for ensuring a coordinated operation and interaction of all bodies of state power, a strictly vertical structure of executive authority and the integrity of the judicial system of Russia. This can be ensured by the application of the constitutional principle of the division of powers, a more strict functional delineation of functions between state institutions, and the strengthening of the federative structure of Russia through the improvement of its relations with federation members in the framework of their constitutional status.
The basic directions in the protection of the constitutional regime in Russia are:
* the ensurance of the priority of the federal legislation and the improvement of the legislations of federation members on this basis;
* the elaboration of organisational and legal mechanisms of protecting state integrity, ensuring the common legal space and national interests of Russia;
* the elaboration and implementation of a regional policy designed to create an optimal balance of federal and regional interests;
* the improvement of a mechanism of preventing the creation of political parties and public associations that have separatist and anti-constitutional goals, and of terminating their operation.
We must pool efforts in the struggle against crime and corruption. Russia needs to liquidate the economic and socio-political basis of these socially-dangerous phenomena, elaborate a comprehensive system of measures for an effective protection of the individual, society and the state from criminal infringements.
Of priority importance is the creation of a system of measures of effective social prevention of crime and education of law-abiding citizens. These measures should be designed to protect the rights and freedoms, morals, health and property of each citizen irrespective of race, nationality, language, descent, property and official status, place of residence, religious beliefs, [political] beliefs, membership in pubic associations, and other circumstances.
The key tasks in the sphere of combating crime are:
* to reveal, liquidate and preclude the appearance of reasons and conditions that engender crime;
* to strengthen the role of the state as the guarantor of security of the individual and society, and the creation of the requisite legal base and mechanism of applying it;
* to strengthen the law-enforcement system, above all the bodies that combat organised crime and terrorism, and create conditions for their effective operation;
* to involve state bodies (within their jurisdiction) in actions taken to prevent illegal actions;
* to develop mutually beneficial international cooperation in the sphere of law-enforcement, above all with countries members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The decisions and measures taken by the bodies of state power in the sphere of combating crime should be open, practical and understandable to all citizens; they should also be pre-emptive, ensure the equality of all citizens before law and inevitable responsibility, and be supported by society.
To prevent and successfully combat crime, we should above all develop the legal base as the foundation for a reliable protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, and ensure compliance with the international legal obligations of the Russian Federation in the sphere of combating crime and respecting human rights. It is vital to deprive criminals of their culture medium created by shortcomings in the legislation and the economic and social crises.
To preclude corruption and liquidate conditions for the legalisation of wealth accumulated in dishonest ways, we should create an effective system of financial control, improve measures of administrative, civic and criminal-law punishment, streamline a mechanism of checking the property situation and the sources of income of officials and the staff of organisations and establishments irrespective of the form of ownership, as well as the balance of their expenses and incomes.
The struggle against terrorism, drug trafficking and smuggling should proceed against the background of a federal package of counter-measures taken to preclude these forms of criminal operation.
Acting on the basis of international agreements, we should effectively collaborate with foreign states, their law-enforcement and special services, as well as international organisations whose task is to combat terrorism. We should also make broader use of the international experience of combating this phenomenon, create a coordinated mechanism of fighting international terrorism, and reliably block all possible channels of the illegal trafficking of weapons and explosives in the country and the channels of their delivery from abroad.
The federal bodies of state power must persecute on the national territory the persons who are involved in terrorist operation, irrespective of where the terrorist acts that damage the Russian Federation were planned and carried out.
The ensurance of the national security of the Russian Federation also includes the protection of the cultural, spiritual and moral heritage, historical traditions and norms of social life, the preservation of the cultural heritage of all nations of Russia, the elaboration of a state policy in the sphere of spiritual and moral education, the introduction of a ban on the use of air time of the electronic mass media for showing programmes that popularise violence and exploit base instincts, as well as resistance to the negative influence of foreign religious organisations and missionaries.
The spiritual renewal of society is impossible without the preservation of the role of the Russian language as a factor of spiritual unity of all peoples of the multinational Russian Federation and as the language of inter-state communication of the peoples of countries members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
To preserve and develop our cultural and spiritual heritage, we should create the socio-economic conditions for the creative activity and operation of cultural institutes.
In the sphere of the protection and improvement of health of the people, public organisations and the bodies of state power of the Russian Federation should pay more attention to the development of the state (federal and municipal) insurance and private medicine, pursue a protectionist state policy with regard to the national medical and pharmaceutical industries, carry out federal programmes in the sphere of hygiene, epidemiology, children's health care, first and emergency medical aid, and medicine of catastrophes.
The priority tasks of the state in the ecological sphere include:
* to rationally use natural resources and popularise ecological culture;
* to prevent the pollution of the environment by raising the standards of safety of technologies related to the burial and utilisation of toxic industrial and community wastes;
* to prevent radioactive pollution of the environment, and to minimise the consequences of radiation accidents and catastrophes;
* to ensure an ecologically safe storage and utilisation of scrapped weapons, above all nuclear submarines, surface ships and vessels with nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons, liquid missile fuel, and the fuel of nuclear power stations;
* to ensure environmentally- and health-friendly storage and liquidation of chemical weapons stocks;
* to create and use safe technologies, search for ways of the practical use of ecologically-safe sources of energy, and take emergency nature-protection measures in the ecologically-hazardous regions of the Russian Federation.
We should elaborate a new attitude to the organisation and ensurance of civil defence on the territory of the Russian Federation, fundamentally improve the single state system of preventing and clearing up the consequences of emergency situations, including the continued integration of this system with similar systems of foreign states.
The foreign policy of the Russian Federation should be spearheaded at:
* pursuing an active foreign policy;
* reinforcing the key mechanisms of multilateral guidance of global political and economic processes, above all under the auspices of the UN Security Council;
* creating favourable conditions for the economic and social development of the country and the maintenance of global and regional stability;
* protecting the legitimate rights and interests of Russian citizens abroad, including by taking political, economic and other measures;
* developing relations with countries members of the Commonwealth of Independent States in accordance with the principles of international law, and developing integration processes in the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the interests of Russia;
* ensuring the full-fledged involvement of Russia in global and regional economic and political structures;
* contributing to the settlement of conflicts, including through the peacekeeping efforts under the auspices of the UN and other international organisations;
* ensuring progress in the sphere of nuclear arms control and maintaining strategic stability in the world on the basis of the fulfilment by states of their international obligations in this sphere;
* fulfilling mutual obligations in the sphere of the reduction and liquidation of mass destruction and conventional weapons, taking confidence- and stability-building measures, and ensuring international control of the export of commodities and technologies, as well as of the provision of services of military and dual nature;
* adjusting the existing agreements on arms control and disarmament to new conditions in international relations, as well as drafting, in case of need, new agreements, above all on confidence- and security-building measures;
* assisting in the creation of zones free from mass destruction weapons;
* developing international cooperation in the sphere of combating transnational crime and terrorism.
The ensurance of military security of Russia is a priority sphere of the country's operation. The main goal in this sphere is to ensure the possibility of an adequate reaction to threats that can arise in the 21st century, with rational spending on national defences.
The Russian Federation prefers political, diplomatic, economic and other non-military measures in the sphere of preventing wars and armed conflicts. But the national interests of the Russian Federation call for maintaining a military organisation that would be sufficient for the defence of the country. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation play the key part in ensuring its military security.
The main task of the Russian Federation is to deter aggressions of any scale against it and its allies, including with the use of nuclear weapons.
The Russian Federation must have nuclear forces capable of delivering specified damage to any aggressor state or a coalition of states in any situation.
The peacetime combat composition of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation must suffice to ensure a reliable protection of the country from a possible air attack, to fulfil, acting jointly with other troops, military formations and agencies, the tasks of repelling an aggression in a local war (armed conflict), and to ensure a strategic deployment of troops for the fulfilment of tasks in an all-out war. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation must ensure the peacekeeping efforts of the Russian Federation.
One of the key strategic tasks in the sphere of ensuring the military security of the Russian Federation is to guarantee effective collaboration and cooperation with countries members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The interests of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation predetermine, in certain conditions, Russia's military presence in some strategically important regions of the world. The deployment of limited military contingents (military bases or naval forces) there on the basis of agreements and international law, as well as on the principles of partnership, is designed to ensure Russia's ability to fulfil its obligations, facilitate the creation of a stable military-strategic balance of forces in these regions, give Russia a possibility to react to a crisis situation at the initial stage, and facilitate the attainment of the foreign policy goals of the country.
The Russian Federation proceeds from the following principles when regarding the possibility of using military force for ensuring its national security:
* the use of all available means and forces, including nuclear weapons, in case of the need to repel an armed aggression when all other means of settling the crisis situation have been exhausted or proved ineffective;
* the use of military force within the country is possible only in strict compliance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws and only in case of threat to the life of citizens and to the territorial integrity of the country, or in case of threat of a violent change of the constitutional regime.
The defence industries play a major part in ensuring the national interests of Russia. The restructuring and conversion of the defence industries should not come into conflict with the creation of new technologies and research-technical possibilities, the modernisation of weapons, military and specialised hardware, and the strengthening of positions of Russian producers on the world market of weapons.
We must create requisite conditions for organising priority fundamental, forecasted and free research that would ensure the priority and promising research-technical achievements in the interests of defence and national security.
The basic tasks of the Russian Federation in the border sphere are:
* to create a requisite normative legal base;
* to develop international cooperation in this sphere;
* to resist the economic, demographic and cultural-religious expansion to the territory of the Russian Federation by other states;
* to preclude the operation of transnational organisations of organised crime and illegal migration;
* to take collective measures to ensure the security of the border space of countries members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The priority tasks of ensuring the information security of the Russian Federation are:
* to implement the constitutional rights and freedoms of the citizens of the Russian Federation in the sphere of information;
* to improve and protect the national information infrastructure and integrate Russia into the world information space;
* to counter the threat of the development of rivalry in the information sphere.
Of special significance in ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation is the effective use and all-round development of the possibilities of intelligence and counter-intelligence with the purpose of promptly revealing threats and determining their sources.
The system of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation is being created and developed in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal laws, decrees and instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, resolutions and instructions of the Government of the Russian Federation, and federal programmes in this sphere.
The core of the system of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation consists of the agencies, forces and means of ensuring the national security that take political, legal, organisational, economic, military and other measures in order to ensure the security of the individual, society and the state.
The functions of the agencies and forces that ensure the national security of the Russian Federation, their composition, the principles of and procedure for their operation are stipulated in the corresponding legislative acts of the Russian Federation.
The policy of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation is formulated and implemented by:
* the President of the Russian Federation, who acts in the framework of his constitutional powers to guide the agencies and forces that ensure the national security of the Russian Federation; sanctions the actions designed to ensure national security; acts in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation to form, reform and liquidate the agencies and forces that ensure national security and are subordinate to him; issues statements, addresses and directives on problems of national security, amends the individual provisions of the National Security Concept of the Russian Federation in his annual addresses to the Federal Assembly and determines the directions of the current domestic and foreign policy of the country;
* the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, which acts on the basis of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and upon recommendations of the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation to form the legislative base in the sphere of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation;
* the Government of the Russian Federation, which acts in the framework of its jurisdiction and with due consideration for the national security priorities formulated in the annual addresses of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to coordinate the operation of the federal bodies of executive power and the bodies of executive power of members of the Russian Federation, and to formulate, in accordance with the established procedure, the items of the federal budget necessary for the implementation of practical targeted programmes in this sphere;
* the Security Council of the Russian Federation, which acts to ensure pre-emptive determination and evaluation of threats to the national security of the Russian Federation, to promptly draft decisions on preventing them for the President of the Russian Federation, to draft proposals in the sphere of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation, as well as proposals on specifying individual provisions of the National Security Concept of the Russian Federation, to coordinate the operation of the agencies and forces that ensure national security, and to control the implementation of decisions in this sphere by federal bodies of executive power and the bodies of executive power of members of the Russian Federation;
* federal bodies of executive power, which ensure the implementation of the legislation of the Russian Federation, decisions of the President of the Russian Federation and the government of the Russian Federation in the sphere of the national security of the Russian Federation; act in the framework of their jurisdiction to draft normative legal acts in this sphere and submit them to the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation;
* bodies of executive power of members of the Russian Federation, which act jointly with the federal bodies of executive power on questions of the fulfilment of the legislation of the Russian Federation, decisions of the President of the Russian Federation and the government of the Russian Federation in the sphere of the national security of the Russian Federation, as well as federal programmes, plans and directives issued by the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the sphere of military security of the Russian Federation; act jointly with local self-governments to hold measures designed to involve citizens, public associations and organisations in the solution of problems of national security in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation; submit to the federal bodies of executive power proposals on the improvement of the system of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation.
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The Russian Federation intends to firmly and resolutely ensure its national security. The existing legal democratic institutes, the structure of the bodies of state power of the Russian Federation, and the broad involvement of political parties and public associations in the implementation of the National Security Concept of the Russian Federation are the earnest of dynamic development of Russia in the 21st century.
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta, January 18. In full.) -0-