5.19-3 ！！！Russias-Transnational-Security Challenges, Policies, and International Cooperation.pdfVIP

Russia’s Transnational Security: Challenges, Policies, and International Cooperation Rouben Azizian Key Findings • The major innovation of Russia’s new security strategy, adopted in May 2009, is its departure from a narrow interpretation of national security as a military or geopolitical concept. A wide variety of factors, including the broad gap between the country’s rich and poor, the level of unemployment and the state of the country’s health and education, have now been framed as fundamental components of Russia’s national security. • Russia’s security strategy does not prioritize the country’s transnational security challenges. It does, however, emphasize the vital importance of protecting the country and its people against terrorism, ethnic and religious extremism, and international crime, especially drug trafficking. • Demographic decline and international migration are perceived as high priorities, although these topics are discussed less openly in view of their diplomatic sensitivity affecting the high-priority relations with former Soviet republics and China. • Russia has shown interest and willingness to advance cooperation with other countries—first of all its neighbors—on transnational challenges. However, the level of such cooperation remains limited. Limitations derive from the high levels of corruption within Russia’s security sector, legislative deficiencies in Russia, the weak legal basis for Russia’s bilateral cooperation on transnational issues, as well as a lack of trust and confidence in her relations with neighboring countries. • US-Russia cooperation on transnational challenges has been uneven and reflective of disruptive bilateral relations in the past few years. After a br