Putin’s Holiday Gift Is a Paranoid New Military Doctrine

Russia’s updated doctrine singles out NATO, unpatriotic kids

The most consequential part of the doctrine refers to Russia’s aim to protect its citizens abroad.

This is through the “lawful use of the armed forces … to ensure the protection of its citizens, outside the Russian Federation in accordance with the generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation.”

This is not controversial on its own, but it gives sufficient wiggle room for Russian troops to intervene in other countries on behalf of Russian passport holders.

Several border states have substantial Russian-speaking minorities. That has the Baltic states worried, as protecting Russian citizens was the Kremlin’s principle justification for invading Crimea—and backing the breakaway statelets of South Ossetia and Abkhazia during the 2008 war with Georgia.

SNIP

But the doctrine goes further. Another military threat is propaganda aimed at influencing “young citizens of the country, which is to undermine the historical, spiritual and patriotic traditions in defense of the Fatherland,” the doctrine states.

That’s a foreboding sign.

Youth protesters are a threat to national security. If Russian citizens are not religious, then the country is weak. Russia is facing a civilizational threat from the West. That’s not just the fever dreams of paranoid nationalists — that’s all in the doctrine.