ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the instruments of Russia's security policy and how they function. In this respect, information and cyber warfare approaches are discussed. It seeks to explain how Russia uses private military companies in military conflicts. It examines how in the Russian view the United States and its allies use conventional and unconventional non-military methods with the aim of forcing regime change in Russia. It further examines how this understanding is used as a justification by Moscow to use similar methods as countermeasures.
The chapter includes a continuing discussion regarding how best to explain Russia's security activities and strategies. The chapter explains that the best approach for understanding Russia's security approaches is that they will use any possible and affordable method in their confrontation with a stronger adversary or adversaries. But Russia with its goals, threat perceptions, and possibilities must use mostly asymmetric strategies and instruments rather than symmetric ones.
It explains that Russia uses any available means against stronger adversaries. This approach can make Russia perceivably stronger in a particular niche. The use of these non-kinetic warfare instruments does not mean that Russia eschews conventional military force; it just means that Russia prefers asymmetric strategies in this as well.
