Threats and challenges to the national security of the Russian Federation
The article identifies the problems associated with the threats and challenges that Russia is facing, lists the main types of threats and analyses the ways to neutralise them. From the point of view of its geopolitical position, Russia in the world community remains an important link and a kind of "bridge" between the West and the East. Russia is characterised by both features of a European state and those of an Asian one. It was and remains a kind of extinguisher of world wars and cataclysms, as it is historically predetermined to be a participant in all global and regional processes. Understanding Russia’s main national interests and the main tools for ensuring them is inextricably linked with the current place of Russia in the system of global military-political relations. The current global military and political situation is characterised by a combination of two main trends: on the one hand, the desire to form a new, more equitable and democratic system of international economic and political relations; on the other hand, the expansion of the use of armed forces on the basis of national decisions. Under these conditions, military forces as an instrument of the foreign policy and ensuring the national interests of a state remain important.