Meanwhile, environmental concerns appear for the first time in a Russian strategic document. Climate change is not only depicted as a new threat that must be battled but also as one of the rare topics that calls for international cooperation.
There is another significant innovation in the 2021 version: an emphasis on defending "traditional Russian values." These have been described at length: dignity, human rights, patriotism, a strong family, a sense of responsibility, the primacy of the spiritual over the material, a "collective" spirit and so on. All of this is threatened by "a foreign propaganda of selfishness, permissiveness and lack of responsibility" that has been propagated by the US government, NGOs and new forms of social media. The "falsification of history" also plays a part. What is at stake is an attempt to "Westernize" Russia, which is presented as being now underway.
Yet another innovation is the central importance given to "information security." The text states that new information technologies are increasingly being used to interfere in Russian internal affairs (sic). With large platforms contributing to "the spread of false information," Russian sovereignty in this area is under threat. The 2021 strategy, therefore, provides for a whole series of measures that include creating a sovereign segment of the Internet, strengthening safeguards against cyberattacks, systematically developing national technologies and, more generally, establishing the "forces and means of information confrontation."
As one reads the document, it is tempting to find commonalities with debates going on in the West but reinterpreted through the Russian system. Of particular note in this context are the reduction of critical dependencies, the necessary investment in advanced technologies and the importance of ecological change (the British "Integrated Review," for example). Where Western analysts speak of a "de-Westernization of the world," the authors of the Russian strategy fear a "Westernization" of Russia. It is hard not to see the irony of this back-and-forth. In terms of "information confrontation," the 2021 strategy signed by Putin has its own way of formalizing a kind of action in which Russia has been a pioneer and which it was the first to practice abroad. The "national security strategy" can thus be read as a justification for a tactic that Russia has been using for years, whether meddling in elections in the West or backing up its actions in Syria or Africa.
What this means for policymakers
This all being said, we must evaluate how important the July 2 document is for deciphering Russian policy. To what extent will it really serve as a "roadmap" for decision-makers in the coming years?
First of all, it’s worth noting that any text of this kind is, by design, hybrid in nature. It has a considerable bureaucratic aspect, as various departments of the state apparatus have contributed to it. Indeed, a series of "checkboxes" can be found from one strategy to the next. In that sense, the "strategic" content of the document should not be exaggerated. However, it also appears to reflect the mindset of the Russian leadership, both implicitly and explicitly.
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