Russia names US as security threat

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the United States a threat to Russia’s national security in a New Year’s Eve official document.

Russia’s expanded role internationally has caused “counteraction from the USA and its allies, which are striving to retain their dominance in global affairs,” the document reads, according to Reuters.

The updated assessment, called “About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation,” is the latest sign of the tension between Moscow and the West.

The previous version, from 2009, mentions neither the United States nor its NATO allies, according to Reuters.

Relations between Moscow and the West soured after the Russian forces annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014. The West also accuses Russia of backing separatists in eastern Ukraine, which Russia denies.

More recently, Russia’s intervention in Syria has drawn rebuke from Western powers. Russia began launching airstrikes in September, saying it was fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). U.S. officials have said the strikes are instead bolstering Syrian President Bashar Assad and targeting Western-backed rebels.

The national security documents say Russia’s increased role in international conflicts brings it new threats.

“The strengthening of Russia happens against the background of new threats to the national security, which has complex and interrelated nature,” the document says, according to Reuters.

With regard to Ukraine, the document says there is a divided society and military conflict because the United States and European Union supported an “anti-constitutional coup d’etat,” Reuters reported.

The document also cited as threats the expansions of both NATO and a U.S. network of military-biological laboratories in countries adjacent to Russia.