ABSTRACT
The national security policy of a state, which involves elements of foreign policy as well as military policy, can generally be understood to be designed to safeguard vital national interests and protect the state from external political and military threats. The task for the Russian military leadership was to restructure the country's military forces on the basis of this inheritance in a radically different geopolitical environment. Military doctrine does not provide any clear guidance for strategic force planning. The end of the Cold War and the end of US-Soviet rivalry has had no effect on strategic analysis in the general staff which is still based on the relationship between US and Russian strategic nuclear forces. The aim of the Russian Federation's policy in the sphere of nuclear weapons according to the 1993 doctrine was to eliminate the danger of nuclear war by deterring any aggression against the Russian Federation and its allies.
