ST R AT E G IC E NV IR ONME NT Russia: impress and intimidate For nearly two decades, Russia has been steadily growing in strength and confidence in domestic as well as foreign affairs. Putin’s re-election as President created the conditions for the Kremlin to continue to adhere to its determined foreign-policy strategy of restoring Russia’s role as a major power on the international stage. Russia’s increased confidence is based chiefly on its regained military strength and its tightly organized power apparatus under President Putin. In September 2018, the large-scale military exercise Vostok 2018 took place in the Eastern Military District. Troops from the Central Military District and the Northern Fleet took part, as did token contingents from China and Mongolia. According to official figures, it was the largest manoeuvre since 1981, with 300,000 participants. One of the objectives of the exercise was to move troops over long distances. With its annual large-scale exercises in one of its four military districts, Russia is displaying in an effective way, both at home and abroad, the modernisation and restructuring of its armed forces and At the end of 2018, Russia successfully tested a hypersonic weapons system. Avangard will form an important pillar of Russia’s nuclear deterrence; China and the USA are striving to make up lost ground in the area of hypersonic technology. The operational availability of such weapons systems is likely to have an adverse impact on the stability of the global security situation. SIT UAT ION R E PORT 2 0 1 9 | FIS 21