There is an actual enunciation of Russia’s own Monroe Doctrine and Russia’s plans for military rearmament. Russia has already commenced major military exercises with all-out war scenarios. This "Monroe Doctrine" emerged from the "Medvedev Doctrine" or formally known as Russia’s new Foreign Policy Doctrine.

President Medvedev is articulating of a Defense Doctrine with priorities for Russia’s rearmament program. There is an intention to add more muscle to its new Foreign Policy Doctrine by specifically reclaiming its old spheres of influence. The new Russian Foreign Policy Doctrine and the Defence Doctrine are a continuation of the policies followed by former President Vladimir Putin.

The new Foreign Policy Doctrine is aimed at “putting on notice” the United States, the West and more specifically the former Republics of the Soviet Union about Russia’s periphery and to stop becoming pawns of the United States strategic game with Russia.

The implications of this Doctrine can be summarized with these few intentions:

* Russia would attempt “forward military presence” deployments in regions strategically sensitive to the United States.

* Russia has already established a strategic bridgehead in the Middle East and the Gulf Region (with the port of Tartus in Syria).

* Syria is becoming a host for a major forward military presence to Russia on the Mediterranean littoral in exchange for Russian military hardware. (The naval base at Tartus is being upgraded for the Russian Navy).

Is not that the Mediterranean gave Russia access to Turkey, Greece and Italy, on the contrary. It is Turkey which gives Russia access to the Mediterranean thru the Bosphorus Strait. So in reality it is Russia the one with the lower hand on this issue.

The scope of the whole deal of Russia to gain access to the Mediterranean from the Black Sea, is so sensitive, that the Russian Black Sea Fleet could not pass thru with its submarines because Turkey´s 1938 treaty forbids the transit of submarines thru the strait, so to compensate Russian Northern Fleet must divert their own submarines all the way from the artic waters to serve in the mediterranean teather. A logitical nightmare for a fleet eager to make a robust presence in Europe´s interior lake.

http://ppj-web-3.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA03349.jpg
Source(s):
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers29%5Cpaper2879.html

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