(SpaceWar) – Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Friday signed a new version of its main military strategy document which named NATO expansion as one of the chief threats to the country’s security.

The document, published on the Kremlin web site, listed first among “chief outside military threats” the fact that NATO is attempting to “globalise its functions in contravention of international law.”

It also cited attempts to bring “military infrastructure of NATO members closer to Russian borders, including by expanding the bloc.”

Russia has bristled at moves by former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO and relations between NATO and Moscow plunged to a post-Cold War low after the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.

Other threats are named as creation and deployment of missile-defence systems and “high-precision conventional weapon systems.

Russia was fiercely opposed to the now-shelved US plan to deploy missile defence facilities in Central Europe.

Since the 1991 Soviet collapse, Russian military planners have relied increasingly on the country’s huge nuclear deterrent as the capabilities of its conventional forces have deteriorated.

Efforts to develop a new military doctrine in recent years have coincided with plans for a radical modernisation of Russia’s armed forces.

Source: Space War