Russia’s Strategic Forces: Policy, Evolution and Prospects

Summary:

Russia's recent economic revival and political transformation, from the embryonic and chaotic democracy of Yeltzin into an authoritarian regime pillaring itself on the security sector and the post-Soviet bureaucracy, provoke critical questions in regards to the nation's future role in the emerging international system, primarily in the Eurasian region.

Two of these questions are whether Russia will be able to maintain the world’s second largest strategic nuclear arsenal, and how Russia’s ruling class will view the roles and missions of nuclear weapons.

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