Russia’s A2/AD Policy as a Balancing Strategy vs NATO Enlargement

In 1995, the Atlantic Alliance published a highly controversial report that foresaw future NATO enlargements in Central and Eastern Europe. NATO opened its doors to former Soviet Union’s allies. At that moment, Russia suspended all its cooperation with the alliance, and Moscow adopted a revisionist and aggressive security policy towards NATO. Step by step and little by little, the Kremlin initiated a reconfiguration of its security doctrine with the aim of dismantling the advantage achieved by NATO through its different enlargements (1999, 2004, 2009 and 2017). The most significant measure undertook by Russia has been the launching of an anti-access anti-denial (A2/AD) strategy based on the establishment of five main defensive enclaves: Kaliningrad, Saint Petersburg, South Ossetia/Abkhazia (Georgia), Crimea and Tartus (Syria). Using long-rate anti air, anti-shipping and surface-to-surface missiles Russia has overshadowed the strategic advantage obtained by NATO with aforementioned enlargements. Thus, this chapter will analyze the past, the present and overall the future of the Russia-NATO relationship.