The following political landscape piece is a part of Eurasia Daily Monitor’s special quarterly series of strategic assessments of developments across Eurasia. These pieces examine recent important developments and trends in the region, particularly since this past summer, and anticipate where those trend lines may... MORE

A recent article in the Financial Times (October 23) ran with the headline “Russia’s Arctic Obsession.” And this has undoubtedly become an entirely justified characterization of Moscow’s approach to its High North. The Arctic’s economic potential is closely linked to the price of oil, which... MORE

The following political landscape piece is a part of Eurasia Daily Monitor’s special quarterly series of strategic assessments of developments across Eurasia. These pieces examine recent important developments and trends in the region, particularly since this past summer, and anticipate where those trend lines may... MORE

“Information warfare,” according to the Russian definition of the term, combines technology (i.e., cyber warfare and electronic warfare) with psychology (“winning hearts and minds”) (Encyclopedia.mil.ru, accessed October 27). When commenting on the psychological aspect of Russian information operations, foreign observers generally focus on the strategic... MORE

The Russian aerospace forces (Vozdushno Kosmicheskye Sily—VKS) continue to bomb the Syrian opposition, as Russia’s Iranian-led allies carry on land attacks against the rebel-controlled half of Aleppo. But meanwhile, Russia’s two largest warships—the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and nuclear battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy—have reached the Mediterranean.... MORE

The former leader of the now-banned “Russians” opposition movement as well as the outlawed skinhead gang Slavic Union (Slavianskii Soiuz), Dmitry Demushkin, was placed under house arrest by the Russian authorities on October 21. Ostensibly, the move was connected to an ongoing legal case against... MORE

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 19). Reportedly, this so-called “Military Internet” allows for exchanging secret electronic data (even marked “Top... MORE

Karachaevo-Cherkessia, a small republic in the Northwestern Caucasus, was among the first areas of the Russian Federation to witness a rise in Islamic jamaats during the 1990s. Yet today, Karachaevo-Cherkessia is a relatively quiet place, unlike neighboring Kabardino-Balkaria and most other North Caucasus republics to... MORE

In the past, Moscow has used population censuses to promote divisions within the Circassian nation. As part of its divide-and-conquer effort in the North Caucasus as well as to isolate them from the far larger Circassian nation abroad, Moscow has required members of that community... MORE

Threat inflationists, both within Russia and internationally, seize on every manifestation of military modernization to argue that Russia’s Armed Forces are fast becoming one of the world’s leading militaries and a force to be reckoned with. Nevertheless, Russia’s Armed Forces remain a pale shadow of... MORE