Executive Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin was propelled into power amid a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Russia in the 1990s. His tactics to combat this “war on terror” are being used today against Ukraine. In the 1990s, Russian propaganda and a boost to... MORE

Executive Summary: NATO’s outgoing Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, recently offered his first retrospective assessment of the Alliance’s Ukraine policy. Retrospective assessments recognize that the United States and its major allies failed to deter Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. While member states may have... MORE

Executive Summary: Russia aims to increase its armed forces to 1.5 million personnel, largely to justify higher military spending. The Kremlin, however, faces difficulties achieving this target, as the war in Ukraine continues to cause tremendous casualties, rapidly depleting Russia’s supply of manpower.  Despite stable... MORE

Executive Summary: The Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute has always been about both Karabakh and regional transit routes, which now center on Zangezur. Addressing this problem is far more difficult than Karabakh because it directly involves not just Baku and Yerevan but all outside powers—including Russia, Iran, Türkiye,... MORE

Executive Summary: Russia and Iran’s strategic partnership has strengthened steadily since the beginning of Moscow’s war against Ukraine and has progressed as tensions in the Middle East are rising, largely due to the war in Gaza. The Kremlin’s growing reliance on an uninterrupted flow of... MORE

Executive Summary: Western officials have raised concerns about increased Russian naval and sabotage activity, which could potentially target the global underwater cable network vital for international communication, financial transactions, and trade. Russia’s specialized unit, the Main Directorate for Deep-Sea Research (GUGI), possesses a significant fleet... MORE

Executive Summary: As Russia suffers under Western sanctions, Kremlin propagandists have turned their attention to Iran and advocated studying the Iranian experience of living under sanctions including Iranian scientific innovation and economic development. Russian officials have sung the praises of the Iranian leadership since the... MORE

Executive Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has rapidly turned into a war of attrition. Along with Moscow’s difficulties raising an army and adequately equipping it, Russia is running out of the resource reserves left over from Soviet times. Senior Russian officials are... MORE

Executive Summary: The All-Russian Cossack Society (VsKO) continues to encourage both registered and non-registered Cossacks to participate in Russia’s war against Ukraine, pulling on Kremlin propaganda about the purpose of the war and the Cossack mythos of the tradition of ancient warriors. The Russian government... MORE

Executive Summary: The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has been expanding its activities in Africa, including aiding in Moscow’s recruitment of locals for its paramilitary needs through religious belief. African students working and living in Russia under the guise of reconstructing ROC monasteries in Ryazan oblast... MORE