title: Russia and Europe’s northern and eastern flanks
abstract: Abstract What threat does Russia actually pose to Europe’s defence? Russia has become more aggressive since President Putin came to power in 2000. It is modernizing its armed forces and has forged a new strategy of complex strategic coercion. Many Russians see this as necessary because of the enlargement of NATO and the EU and that a critical Russian national interest is to have strong Russian armed forces. However, Russia is also a relatively poor and politically unstable state and the cost of 