Russia's Security Strategy (2005-2015): From Soft Balancing to Hard Balancing against Hegemon

The disintegration of bipolar system led to the rise of the United States as world dominating and hegemon power. This change in international system led the researcher to focus their study on the reaction of smaller power to the policy of hegemon power. In this direction, Russia's behavior in recent years against the United States has been studies. The article by a causal-analytical approach studies Russia's security strategy during 2005 to 2015. The underlying hypothesis is that the grand security strategy of Russia in the said period had been soft balancing against the hegemon. Nevertheless, Russia has kept the option of hard but calculable balancing against the hegemon in exceptional situations. The article refers to the reaction of Russia in Georgian crisis (2008), Ukraine crisis (2014) and Syrian crisis (2011-2017) and evaluated the hypothesis in the above said crises. The article is of the view that the Russian intervention in the Syrian crisis is related to the perception of Russia about the possible scenario of Assad's fall and the resultant security threat for Russia but Russia has been careful that the military intervention in Syria should not expand to the level which instigate the United States and its allies and direct them to a possible military confrontation.