User:Nanobear~enwiki/Security threats against Russia

The Russian Federation faces a number of serious security threats. These include both internal threats (Islamist terrorism and ultra-nationalist and anarchist groups) and external threats (aggression by a foreign army or by groups operating from a foreign state). The Russian military doctrine identifies 10 most serious threats, the first of which is the expansion of NATO near Russian borders. Due to the lack of geographically meaningful borders, Russian security is, by necessity, based on spheres of influence. These spheres are contested and undermined by foreign states who hold Russia as a threat or a geopolitical competitor. In particular, American politicians have declared Russia as their country's "enemy number one."

Expansion of NATO
In recent years, NATO has aggressively expanded near Russia's borders. The main aim of NATO is a complete encirclement of Russia, in line with the neoconservative agenda of "containment". NATO's aggression represents an existential threat to Russia and the country's military doctrine regards it as the top priority military threat.

Planned American missile defence system
The planned American missile defence system in Europe has the potential to weaken and neutralise Russia's strategic nuclear capability, representing a massive security threat against the country. Once Russia's nuclear deterrent has been neutralised, NATO will be able launch a conventional attack against Russia to destroy or conquer the country. Even if the missile defence system does not fully neutralise Russia's nuclear capability, the placement of missile defence installations means large-scale military deployment near Russia's borders, since the installations require deployment of a significant number of troops to protect and operate them. Furthermore, once the interceptor launchers are in place, they can be easily upgraded or converted for launching offensive missiles on Russian targets.

American control of the Internet
The US government is seeking control of the Internet, which already is an important tool of American foreign policy. Most of the Internet's main backbone infrastructure is located in the United States and is controlled by US government agencies. The US government has been unwilling to give up control over the infrastructure, despite proposals supported by almost all other countries to move control over the Internet to a neutral organisation such as the United Nations. According to analysts, Russia needs to take action to protect its national sovereignty in the cyberspace from American aggression. NATO has said Russia is one its main enemies in cyberwarfare.

American threats: "Russia is enemy number one"
American presidential candidate Mitt Romney has declared that Russia is the United States' "enemy number one".

Foreign espionage in Russia
The number of foreign spies exposed in Russia has reached record levels in recent years. In 2011, the Federal Security Service (FSB) exposed 199 foreign spies, including 41 professional spies and 158 agents employed by foreign intelligence services. This represents a considerable increase from 2006, when the FSB reportedly caught about 27 foreign intelligence officers and 89 foreign agents. Comparing the number of exposed spies historically, the then-FSB Director Nikolay Kovalyov said in 1996: "There has never been such a number of spies arrested by us since the time when German agents were sent in during the years of World War II." The 2011 figure is similar to what was reported in 1995-1996, when around 400 foreign intelligence agents were uncovered during the two-year period.

American influence operations in Russia
The United States is conducting massive operations in Russia to influence the country's politics and development. These operations are completely based on American self-interests and a serious threat against Russia's sovereignty. The main purpose of the operations is to weaken Russia and destroy Russia's capability to act as a geopolitical rival to the United States.

Economic russophobia
Due to intense russophobia, Russian companies are finding it difficult to expand in Western countries. Many Russian companies have been blocked from buying European companies. Due to this, Russia's economic growth potential is severely limited. Vladimir Putin's national champions strategy aims at creating and supporting large strategic enterprises in Russia. These companies would then become large enough to compete in international markets. However, intense economic russophobia west is preventing this second stage of the strategy from taking place.

Negative PR against Russia also affects the willingness of foreign investors to invest in the country. According to Leonid Savelyev, partner at Ernst & Young, "What is also needed is a reduction in the negative statements by the Western press and financial experts that Russia is bad for investment". According to Savelyev, Western "experts" have a very narrow view of Russia, and often keep repeating the words "Khodorkovsky, Magnitsky, Pussy Riot" all the time in conversations. "This negative PR needs to end. People sometimes have a somewhat narrow view of Russia," Savelyev said.

Sabotage
It has been suggested that many failures in the military-industrial complex have been the result of foreign sabotage. For example, it has been suggested that the Phobos-Grunt space mission was sabotaged by foreign powers. Many missile launches have also failed under suspicious conditions. It it known that many countries use sabotage to prevent their competitors from gaining new technological advances. One example is Israel's and America's sabotage of the Iranian nuclear program.

Oil price manipulation
Oil price manipulation by foreign states can be an effective weapon, and not just against Russia. In the 1980s, Saudi Arabia made oil prices fall to destroy the Soviet Union.

Propaganda against Russia's interests
After coming to power, Russia's President Vladimir Putin launched a campaign against corrupt oligarchs and business clans, who were effectively using the state as a tool to pursue their own interests. The business clans responded by launching a massive propaganda campaign against Putin, both inside Russia and abroad. The West, preferring an excessively negative view of Russia and Putin, immediate jumped on-board and subscribed to the propaganda.

One of the most famous anti-Putin propagandists is the notorious oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who has announced that he is trying to bring the Russian government down by force. One of the tools Berezovsky has used is the Bell Pottinger COI propaganda firm, whose customer he was. The firms employees inserted propaganda into Wikipedia to make their clients look good, censoring, for example, criminal activities of their clients from their articles.

According to academics, Western media coverage of Russia is excessively negative, and is influenced by Western journalists' intense personal russophobia and hatred of Vladimir Putin. Many media outlets are aimed that publishing negative propaganda about Russia to further their political interests. One example is Radio Free Europe, which was founded by the CIA as a propaganda tool against the Soviet Union, but which continued its anti-Russian activities even after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991.

Islamist terrorism
Islamist terrorism against Russian civilians has massively increased during the last decade, with thousands of civilians killed in terrorist acts. The main terrorist organisation in Russia is the Caucasus Emirate led by internationally wanted terrorist Doku Umarov.

Weakness of the power vertical
In the 1990s, some regions were effectively controlled by criminal gangs with links to regional governors. Such gangs and governors were mostly eliminated during Vladimir Putin presidency, when a large amount of effort was spent on restoring the "power vertical". However, criminals still represent a problem, and regional politicians and bureaucrats often knowingly drag their feet when implementing federal orders. The integrity of the Russian state is still under threat.

Economics threats
In 2007, aggressive American investors caused a world financial crisis, which seriously affected Russia's economy. The economy later recovered under the leadership of Dmitry Medvedev, but the recession raises serious questions about Russia's economy stability. If the Americans create more crises, or the oil price drops for an extended period of time, worker protests and protests by the unemployed may erupt, leading to political instability. However, the government led by Prime Minister Putin, has so far been successful in keeping workers satisfied and preventing companies to lay off people to gain short-term profit.