President Vladimir Putin attends the plenary session of the 21st annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club on November 7, 2024. (Photo:AA/VNA)

The core principle of the document is that nuclear weapons are the last resort to safeguard the country's sovereignty, the TASS news agency said. The emergence of new military threats and risks prompted Russia to clarify the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons, it said.

In particular, the amended doctrine expands the range of countries and military alliances subject to nuclear deterrence, as well as the list of military threats that such deterrence is designed to counter.

The document states that Russia will now view any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack. Moscow also reserves the right to consider a nuclear response to a conventional weapons attack threatening its sovereignty, a large-scale launch of enemy aircraft, missiles, and drones targeting Russian territory, their crossing of the Russian border, and an attack on  Belarus.

The previous version of Russia’s nuclear doctrine was approved in June 2020, replacing a similar document that had been in force for ten years.