Sergey Sukhankin

Dr. Sergey Sukhankin is a Senior Fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, and an Advisor at Gulf State Analytics (Washington, D.C.). He received his PhD in Contemporary Political and Social History from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His areas of interest include Kaliningrad and the Baltic Sea region, Russian information and cyber security, A2/AD and its interpretation in Russia, the Arctic region, and the development of Russian private military companies since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War. He has consulted or briefed with CSIS (Canada), DIA (USA), and the European Parliament. His project discussing the activities of Russian PMCs, “War by Other Means,” informed the United Nations General Assembly report entitled “Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination.” He is based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

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    Articles by Sergey Sukhankin

    Russian Mercenaries’ Potential Advent to Mali

    According to various reports, members of Russia’s notorious Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) have been transported to Mali to render assistance to the local interim government (Rosbalt.ru, September 27). Given

    Russian Inroads Into Central Africa (Part Two)

    *To read Part One, please click here.   Beginning in 2019, Russia intensified its outreach to some Central African countries—particularly, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic

    Russian Inroads Into Central Africa (Part One)

    The Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum, held in Sochi on October 23–24, 2019 (see EDM, October 28, 2019), reaffirmed Russia’s growing interest in Central Africa. Among the countries comprising this

    Russia’s Arctic Agenda and the Role of Canada

    New research (which includes two articles written by Russian experts) published by the prominent think tank the Canadian Global Affairs Institute has spurred interest and hopes in Russia’s expert community

    The ‘Military Pillar’ of Russia’s Arctic Policy

    On February 28, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the Northern Fleet (NF) created an additional Air Defense (Voyska Protivovozdushnoy—PVO) division, ensuring that, “the Northern Sea Route [NSR] is

    Russian Special Operations Forces: Image Versus Substance

    Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated members of the country’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) on their professional day, February 27 (inaugurated in 2015), underscoring this service’s instrumentality in the “eradication of

    Russia Embarks on Military Buildup in the Far East

    The Russian government stated, on February 1, that units of the Aerospace Forces (Vozdushno-Kosmicheskiye Sily—VKS) are to be located on Iturup Island (southern end of the Kurile Islands chain, disputed

    Russia Tests EW Capabilities Ahead of Zapad 2017

    The development of electronic warfare (EW) capabilities is a strategic priority for Russia (see EDM, July 19). And Moscow’s preparations for the upcoming Zapad 2017 war games (September 14–20) have

    Slavic Brotherhood 2017—A Road to Zapad 2017?

    Belarus hosted the trilateral military exercise Slavic Brotherhood 2017, on June 6–14, bringing together Armed Forces personnel from Russia, Belarus and Serbia (Vsr.mil.by, June 16). The maneuvers were headed by

    Russian ‘Cyber Troops’: A Weapon of Aggression

    Speaking to the Russian parliament (Duma) last February, Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu announced the creation of “information operations troops” (“cyber troops”) within the Armed Forces. He emphasized that

    Russia Beefs up Its Offensive Cyber Capabilities

    The Russian mass media (with a reference to the Reuters news agency) reported, on November 11, that Russian hackers launched a series of cyberattacks against analytical centers and think tanks

    HIV Epidemic Spreads in Russia

    Russian media reported, on November 2, that the Russian city of Yekaterinburg has been hit by an epidemic of HIV. Tatiana Savinova, first deputy director of local healthcare, stated that

    Russia Playing Catch-Up in Cyber Security

    On October 19, the Russian Ministry of Defense finalized the creation of a special communications system (“closed segment data transfer”) that can function autonomously from the global Internet (Izvestia.ru, October

    The Baltic Sea Region: A New ‘Powder Keg?’

    During the first half of this month (May 2–19), Estonia is hosting one of the largest military exercises in its post-Soviet history—“Spring Storm 2016” (Delfi, May 2). These war games