TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY AND RUSSIA

ACCUSATIONS

1. Russia is using subversive measures to weaken the credibility of America’s commitment to Europe;
2. Russia undermines transatlantic unity, and weakens European institutions and governments;
3. With its invasions of Georgia and Ukraine, Russia has demonstrated its willingness to violate the sovereignty of states in the region;
4. Russia continues to intimate its neighbors with threatening behavior, such as nuclear posturing and the forward deployment of offensive capabilities;
5. Russia challenges American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security, and prosperity.

National Security Adviser (H.R. McMaster) 12 December 2017

1. Russia is undermining the international order and stability;
2. Russia ignores the sovereign rights of its neighbors and the rule of law;
3. Russia has pioneered a ‘new generation warfare’ that uses subversion and disinformation and propaganda using cyber tools operating across multiple domains, that attempt to divide our communities within our nations and pit them against each other, and try to create crises of confidence;
4. Russia conducted a concerted campaign of interference in the U.S. presidential election in 2016.

Cooperation

1. Russia is a ‘rival power’
2. The US will seek a great partnership with Russia but in way that always protect its national interests.

RUSSIAN REACTION

1. Russian officials deny that Moscow meddled in the US election;
2. US remarks are extremely and absolutely wrong. Russia does not indulge in sophisticated subversion in the United States;
3. Russian officials consider the new US security strategy as imperialist and a return to the ‘Cold War’ mentality and demonstrates a reluctance to abandon the idea of a unipolar world;
4. Trump’s strategy affirms a vision of the world in which states unabashedly pursue their own national interests without expressing concern for universal values. It also offers an implicit rejection of global cooperation.
5. Moscow also seeks cooperation with the United States in areas, which are beneficial for Russia, depending on how far U.S. counterparts are ready to go.