President Vladimir Putin has decided to make unspecified changes to Russia's national security strategy before the end of the year, news agency RIA Novosti reported Thursday, citing the press service of the National Security Council.
Though it is not known precisely what Putin plans to change, amendments to various military doctrines during the past year have seen the Western NATO military alliance specified as one of Russia's primary security threats.
"The president decided to revise the national security strategy to ensure the continuity of state policy in the sphere of national security, national interests and strategic national priorities," the press service was quoted as saying.
Russian law requires that the national security strategy be updated every six years. The current version of the document was approved by Putin on May 12, 2009.
The last major Russian national security document to be amended was the naval doctrine, which was updated to prioritize the development of Russia's presence in strategic areas: primarily the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The change reflects the Russian navy's desire to re-establish its status as a blue-water navy, a term describing a fleet capable of deploying ships far beyond its coastal waters — something the Russian navy largely lost during the 1990s when funding for maintenance and deployments were scarce.
In December 2014, Putin authorized the amendment of the nation's overall military doctrine — previously edited in 2010 — to name the expansion of NATO toward Russia's borders as a key threat to Russian national security.
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