РЕГИОНАЛЬНЫЕ ПОДХОДЫ RUSSIA’S SECURITY CHALLENGES IN THE 21ST CENTURY A.A. Eremin Theory and History of International Relations Chair Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Miklukho-Maklaya str., 10, Moscow, Russia, 117198 The article is devoted to the examination of the principal Russia’s security challenges in the 21st century. <...> Main threats and key international problems as well as potential ways to cope with them are under analysis. <...> When we were to develop our own policy, which had not been imposed by USA, we had to choose which way to go: to continue claiming to be a global power, or to choose a less ambitious role of a regional leader. <...> Both of these positions had their own pros and cons: the first one was hard to implement, because we were very limited economically and politically, due to the transitional period that we were going through; but this way we did not lose (mostly in our own eyes) many of our privileges in the foreign affairs arena. <...> This political outlook is what defined our position in foreign affairs and what predetermined the main challenges we were to experience (or perhaps still are to experience). <...> The most recent document that defines the challenges and threats that our country is facing or is about to face — is «Russia’s National Security Strategy to 2020» [1], an official document that was accepted by president Medvedev. <...> According to this document, our country is facing threats from three main directions: Islamic world, China and the West [9]. <...> Now, not to be politically incorrect, we have to note, that all of these directions are not just sources of threats, but also have some opportunities for our country — the difference is in the ratio of positive and negative results. 49 Вестник РУДН, серия Международные отношения, 2014, № 2 Before we take a closer look into these three, we need to name our main vulnerabilities in order to be able to note whoever has a better chance for exploiting them: — Russia has a sizable population. <...> While the majority of them (in Tatarstan for example) are more or less russified and cause no problems, many in Chechnya and other Caucacus republics <...>