The Russian Federation Navy: An Assessment of its Strategic ...

Federation in the Field of Naval Activities for 2010. The former document, drawing as it doesupon the specific maritime provisions of documents including the National Security Strategyand the Military Doctrine, is due to be updated so to conform with the recently publishedrevised versions of the latter. The Basic Policy was approved in 2000 (thus pre-dating theMaritime Doctrine). The Maritime Board of the Government of the Russian Federation inDecember 2009 tasked the Ministry of Defence to draft a ‘policy framework of the RussianFederation in the field of naval activities in 2020’; this was to be reported back to the Boardin May 2010. 64Maritime DoctrineThe principal guiding document for Russian naval and wider maritime activity is the MaritimeDoctrine of the Russian Federation for the Period Up to 2020. This document assumes aholistic approach to the conduct of Russia’s maritime activities, covering economic, scientificand naval functions. The Maritime Doctrine seeks to define the position and role of Russia’smaritime interests within the wider context of national policy and the specific nationalinterests ‘of the Russian Federation in the oceans, the purposes and principles of theNational Maritime Policy’. 65 These are defined as including: the inviolability of Russiansovereignty over its internal and territorial waters, seabed and subsoil and the aboveairspace; the sovereignty of the Russian Federation in its exclusive economic zone andcontinental shelf; the right to freedom of the high seas for navigation, fisheries, scientificwork, the laying of submarine cables and pipelines and over-flight; and protection of humanlife at sea, prevention of pollution, maintenance of control over sea communications and thecreation of favourable conditions for the economic benefit of the Russian Federation throughmaritime activity. 66This constitutes the basis for the development of the National Maritime Policy via an‘integrated approach to maritime activities in general and its differentiation in certain areas,taking into account the changes of priority depending on the geopolitical situation...’ 67 TheNational Maritime Policy is divided into functional and geographic components; for thepurposes of this paper, only the naval provisions of the National Maritime Policy will beexamined.The ‘main goals and basic principles of the Russian Federation in the field of naval activities’are defined in the Basic Policy and form the basis for the naval component of the MaritimeDoctrine. The Basic Policy defines the main objectives of Russian naval policy as:‘Realization and protection of public interests of the Russian Federation in the oceans, theconservation of its status as a world maritime power; [and] the development and effectiveuse of naval building [in] the Russian Federation’. 68 The principles underpinning Russiannaval policy are reiterated in the Maritime Doctrine as:[The] Navy is the main pillar and foundation of [the] maritimecapabilities [of] the Russian Federation ... and is designed to protect theinterests of the Russian Federation and its allies in the oceans by militarymethods, the maintenance of military-political stability in the adjacent seas, [and]military security with marine and ocean areas. Navy exercises deter the use ofmilitary force or threat of force against the Russian Federation, [sic] protect thesovereignty of the military means of the Russian Federation, extending beyondits land territory to the inland marine waters and territorial sea, the sovereign64 Minutes of the meeting of the Maritime Board under the Government of the Russian Federation, 21 December2009, http://www.morskayakollegia.ru [via http://translate.google.co.uk].65 The Maritime Doctrine of the Russian Federation for the Period Up to 2020, p. 2.66 Ibid., pp 2-3.67 Ibid., p. 3.68 Basic Policy of the Russian Federation in the Field of Naval Activities, p. 4.10