ABSTRACT
Russia boasts the largest territory in the world, stretching from the Pacific across Siberia far into the European continent. Historically, the country has long been one of the world’s great powers with a foreign and security policy rooted in realpolitik. Imperial Russia, for example, customarily relied on varying military alliances to preserve a balance of power in Europe. Interventions in weaker neighbouring countries safeguarded a friendly belt around the Russian heartland. The Cold War between the Warsaw Pact and NATO represented the climax of such power politics. Russia provided the key security pillars for the Soviet bloc and it defined the foundations of Soviet defence policies through antagonism to the West. Moscow viewed massive investments in conventional and nuclear arms as the best deterrence against Western aggression.
