Latest Articles about Russia

Navalny Organizes Another Round of Protests Against Putin

Ostensibly to celebrate Vladimir Putin’s birthday on Saturday, October 7, supporters of the detained opposition politician and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny and his staff organized protests across Russia, calling on the Russian president to leave office. Navalny himself has been under administrative arrest since September... MORE

Arms and the King in Saudi-Russian Relations

Vladimir Putin described Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s visit to Moscow as “momentous” (see EDM, October 10; RIA Novosti, October 5); and it certainly was. In similar fashion, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented that the Saudi monarch’s visit constituted a “turning point in... MORE

Orthodox Fundamentalists Backed by Russian Siloviki, Scholar Says

Many have wondered why the Russian government has not come down harder on what some are calling “the Orthodox Jihad,” radical groups within the Russian Orthodox Church that, despite opposition from the Moscow Patriarchate, have engaged in various illegal actions—including attacks on movie theaters that... MORE

Zapad 2017: Myth and Reality

The joint Belarusian-Russian strategic military exercise Zapad 2017 may have generated more international interest than any previous Russian exercise since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The context included the marked deterioration of Russian relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) caused by Moscow’s... MORE

Russia Is Steered Back Toward Petro-Stagnation

The “historic” trip of King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud to Moscow, last week (October 4–7) was an affair long on ceremony, featuring a massive delegation, but rather uncertain regarding the real results. The first ever royal visit (which had been rescheduled several times) was... MORE

Zapad 2017: Lessons Learned by Russia and Implications for NATO

The week-long Russian-Belarussian strategic military exercise Zapad 2017 attracted close attention in Ukraine and the member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But this topic did not simply disappear after the formal end of the exercises on September 20; experts and analysts are... MORE