The 55-page document states that the “main challenges and threats” to national security and development are Washington’s “strategic goal of global ocean domination” and the movement of NATO’s military infrastructure toward Russia’s borders.
The document, which was signed on the Russian Navy’s birthday, stated that “Russia’s independent domestic and foreign policy is facing countermeasures from the United States and its allies aiming to maintain their hegemony in the world, including in its oceans.”
Moscow sees the Western military alliance (which was the enemy of the Soviet Union during the Cold War) as an existential threat, using Ukraine’s membership to justify the Russian military operation that began on February 24.
The doctrine noted Russia’s desire to develop a “safe and competitive” sea lane from Europe to Asia, known as the Northeast Passage, through the Arctic coast and ensure its year-round operation.
She stressed that “Russia cannot exist today without a powerful fleet… and it will defend its interests in the world’s oceans with firmness and determination.”
In his speech in St. Petersburg, on the occasion of the Russian Naval Fleet Day, Putin praised “Tsar Peter the Great for making Russia a great naval power and raising its standing in the world.”
After inspecting the fleet, Putin pledged, in a brief word, to include what he described as “the unique Russian Tsirkon cruise missiles,” warning that Russia has “the military capacity to defeat any potential aggressor.”
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