Throughout its history, Russia has faced a fundamental geographic problem: the rivers on which the country relies, both during shipping seasons and in winter-time as “ice roads,” flow almost exclusively from north to south rather than east to west. No Russian government has ever succeeded... MORE

A great deal of recent commentary has alerted Western audiences to the threat posed by Russian spy ships and submarines in the North Atlantic. These vessels are conducting reconnaissance of United States naval bases and particularly of the trans-oceanic cables that bind together the US... MORE

Taking ownership of and “conquering” the Arctic are themes Russian authorities love to amplify. But sometimes, the harsh Northern reality interferes. The crash of an Mi-8 helicopter in Svalbard (Spitsbergen), last Thursday (October 26), with eight lives lost, was one such occasion. Norway launched a... MORE

The Arctic icepack is retreating faster than anyone expected. But at the same time, Russia has failed to set up reliable guidance and communications networks along the Northern Sea Route (a maritime passage that mainly hugs Russia’s northern coast). These factors, combined with China’s desire... MORE

For about a decade, the Arctic has been a showpiece of Russian policy. And with the Vladimir Putin regime’s displayed proclivity for engaging in vast “mega-projects” like the Sochi Olympics, the Arctic had been in a class of its own as a multi-year economic and... MORE

Russians currently own approximately 25 million guns, according to Moscow experts; and while only about 20 percent of these are registered with the authorities as the law requires, most Russian gun owners use their weapons for target practice, hunting or in self-defense (Komsomolskaya Pravda, Windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com,... MORE

Since 2001, Russian-Chinese relations have been largely grounded in security issues, both military and economic. The former is a shared perception of an increasingly aggressive United States and, in the case of Russia, concerns over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) deployments on the periphery... MORE

“Big mistake”—that was how Russian President Vladimir Putin recently described the determined efforts in the United States to investigate Russia’s interference in the US elections last year. He characterized the present level of bilateral relations as “close to zero” and warned that further “absurd” attempts... MORE

The director of the Russian transport ministry’s Department of Maritime and River Transportation, Vitalii Klyuyev, spoke, on March 24, at the “LNG [liquefied natural gas] Bunkering Market as an Alternative” conference, in St. Petersburg. Klyuyev told participants that the world’s first LNG tanker specifically constructed... MORE

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu used the shortened workweek before Red Army Day (February 23—officially rechristened “Defender of the Fatherland Day,” following the collapse of the Soviet Union) to promote Russia’s military successes. Dressed in an army general’s uniform decorated with military ribbons, Shoigu addressed an... MORE