From Reuters: President Dmitry Medvedev approved Friday a new military doctrine identifying NATO expansion as a national threat and reaffirming Russia’s right to use nuclear weapons if the country’s existence is threatened.

The doctrine identifies the expansion of NATO to Eastern Europe and U.S. plans to create an anti-missile shield in Europe as concerns for national security, although it also states that the likelihood of a nuclear conflict has abated…

The doctrine says that one of the “main external threats of war” comes from NATO’s expansion east to Russia’s borders and pinpoints the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, missiles and states with nuclear weapons as a separate danger.

“The creation and deployment of strategic anti-missile systems that undermine global stability,” is also named as a threat. (photo: Denis Sinyakov/Reuters)