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Abstract As a country that values security and emphasizes the maintenance of national security through military approaches, Russia’s nuclear deterrence strategy is an important means of maintaining its national security. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia’s nuclear strategy has been evolving as the Russian-U.S. relations and Russia’s perception of its own threats have changed. In the early years of Yeltsin’s rule, drawing on the lessons of the Soviet Union and the desire to build closer relations with the United States and European countries, Russia pursued a nuclear defense strategy. After Putin came to power, Russia sought great power status, while the relationship between Russia and the U.S. was not coordinated. Russia strengthened the nuclear threat and pursued a pre-emptive and preventive nuclear strike strategy. After the Crimean crisis in 2014, the U.S. and Europe imposed sanctions on Russia, and at the same time helped Ukraine to improve its defense capabilities. Following this, Russia shifted to a nuclear strategy of both nuclear and conventional. Against the backdrop of a prolonged conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russia’s nuclear strategy has been adjusted to a strategy of deterrence by denial, and has continuously lowered the threshold for nuclear use, aiming to improve nuclear containment capabilities to achieve the purpose of deterring the U.S. and Europe. Russia has withdrawn from a series of military cooperation agreements with the U.S., and a wide range of actors from top officials to academics have been warning of the risk of nuclear war, emphasizing full operational readiness of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces. The prospects for the use of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces raise the importance and urgency of understanding the evolving logic of Russia’s nuclear strategy and the scenarios for its application.
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