The new military directive - the first one in Russia since the Bolshevik revolt of 1917 - gives the Russian Armed Forces an expanded role in the country's internal affairs and finally lays to rest the policy of maintaining military opposition to NATO, or to any state or a group of states in the world.
The 21-page document promises a leaner fighting force which is supposed to be more mobile and flexible, and less of a drain on Russia's economy.
The doctrine also provides for Russian troops to operate in peacekeeping missions, along the periphery of the former Soviet Union and beyond.
The new military doctrine contains various controversial points, the most troublesome of which is the formula saying that Russia's military may use nuclear forces in a first strike against conventional attack in two cases:
(1) against an aggressor who has an agreement with a nuclear state, and has attacked the Russian Federation, its armed forces, its territory or its allies;
(2) in case of joint actions of such a state with a nuclear state aimed at invasion of or armed attack upon the Russian Federation.
Why are these provisions so controversial?
The new military strategy clearly abrogates commitments made by democratic and sovereign Russia after the abortive coup in August 1991 in at least three instances:
oin the Agreement on Joint Arrangements for Nuclear Arms, between Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine in Almaty on Dec. 21, 1991 (Article 2);
oin a Presidential letter on arms control and disarmament sent to the U. N. Security Council on Jan. 30, 1992;
oin the Joint Russo-Chinese Declaration signed on Dec. 18, 1992 in Beijing during Boris Yeltsin's trip to China.
The revision of the old "no-first use" concept by Moscow is regarded by some experts as a sign that it intends to continue improving its first-strike capability, which may prompt a number of so-called threshold states (states that are very close to make a nuclear bomb) to speed up arms programs.
Russia's new military doctrine is a step in the right direction, but it does leave room for improvement.
Vladimir Kozin is a senior counselor in the Arms Control Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. He contributed this comment to The Moscow Times.
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