Russia revising military doctrine

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MOSCOW, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Russia's new military policy will include changing the scenarios that could trigger the use of nuclear weapons or preventive strikes, officials said Thursday.

Russia soon will adopt a new military doctrine developed to transform the country's troops into a more effective and mobile force, officials told RIA Novosti. The armed forces were expected to be optimized by better use of combined units that perform similar tasks, the report said.

"In respect to the possibility of preventive or nuclear strikes we will formulate some provisions that will be somewhat different from those contained in the current doctrine," Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said. "We would like to make this new military doctrine (to be) transparent so that people in the country and abroad will know what we have developed and how we want to work. We will set goals and lay out how to achieve them."

The General Staff still is developing the draft doctrine, which officials expect to present to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev by the end of the year, Patrushev said.