Abstract:

Security strategy documents are the main sources of a state’s threat perceptions, interests, and possible foreign policy steps. These documents include national security concepts, foreign policy concepts and military doctrines. In light of these documents, it is also possible to clearly predict how a state can respond to regional and global developments. In this context, these documents highlight the outlines of the policies of the Russian Federation (RF) toward post-Soviet geography and its relations with the Euro-Atlantic Bloc (NATO and the European Union). Ukraine is also one of the factors determining relations between the RF and the Euro-Atlantic Bloc. Within this frame, relations between the RF and Ukraine are generally assessed in the context of the eastward enlargement of the Euro-Atlantic Bloc. However, in addition to this enlargement, historical-symbolic and military-geopolitical relations between the two states should also be considered. In other words, the annexation of Crimea should be reduced not only to current geopolitical realities but also to the place of Ukraine and Crimea in Russian historiography. After all, the RF’s perception of Ukraine was crucial to the occupation process. Within this framework, the annexation of Crimea will be analyzed in light of geopolitical and historical developments and the context of the RF’s security strategy documents. This analysis will undoubtedly guide the study of the RF-Ukraine War that began in February 2022.

Keywords: