ABSTRACT
The rapid transformation of Russia’s security environment since 1991 has been driven both by internal political and economic turmoil and by external processes which the Russian government has struggled to manage. Indeed, the concept of security itself has undergone a radical re-evaluation: the Soviet state was largely able to maintain order at home and therefore saw security essentially as, first, the ability to withstand strong and hostile powers at its borders and, second, the external projection of political-military power and influence. This has been succeeded by a Russian Federation in which internal challenges to order – even the survival of the state – are, despite concerns about certain geopolitical developments, seen as crucial. Regionalism has complicated Moscow’s response to these challenges.
