Latest Articles about Russia
Moscow Displays New Military Hardware Amid Rising Tensions (Part Two)
Russia’s triumphal display of apparent military strength during the annual Victory Day Parade is partly aimed at masking the dearth of foreign leaders attending the 70th anniversary celebration of the end of the Great Patriotic War, as well as showcasing some advances in weapons and... MORE
France to Refund Russia $1.2 billion for Non-Delivery of Mistral Helicopter Carriers
Russia’s March 17, 2014, annexation of Crimea plunged Russian-Western relations to their lowest level since the Cold War. Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) subsequently imposed sanctions on Russia over its actions toward Ukraine. Notably, a pair of Mistral-class helicopter assault ships being... MORE
Chinese Investors Show Interest in the North Caucasus
China has found an unlikely ally in the North Caucasus—the region’s smallest republic, Ingushetia. The Ingushetian government has announced that a large Russian-Chinese forum will take place in the republic and contracts worth millions of dollars will be signed. The republic’s government has agreed to... MORE
Putin’s Political Pause Amid National Mobilization
As if trying to compensate for his recent “disappearance” in early March, President Vladimir Putin participated in a series of high-intensity meetings and public events last week. His domestic audiences included students and “heroes of labor”; instructions were issued to government ministers, members of the... MORE
Dagestani Militants Experience Series of Setbacks
After Ramzan Kadyrov’s statements authorizing Chechen police to shoot to kill police officers from outside Chechnya who appear there without notifying the republican authorities (see EDM, April 27), the governor of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, came out in support of his colleague, saying that special operations... MORE
Why Kadyrov Has Fought With Bastrykin
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has become one of Russia’s most quoted persons for the second time since last December. After the incursion into Grozny by a small group of militants on December 4, 2014, Kadyrov ordered the burning down of the militants’ houses and the... MORE
Russia’s State RIA News Agency: ‘Let the world fear us’
The May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow is designed to impress the world and the home public with Russia’s relentless military might. But no one seems to be counting the expenses. The last Soviet military parade in Red Square was in November 1990. Then,... MORE
Russia’s Hybrid War Against Poland
In early April 2015, the Polish Internal Security Agency’s Governmental Computer Security Incident Response Team (also known as CERT—Computer Emergency Response Team), released its annual report on cyber security in Poland (Cert.gov.pl, April 3). According to the report’s findings, Poland came under a record number... MORE
Russia’s Game in Southeast Asia
The Ukraine crisis has brought Russia and China much closer together (see EDM, April 3). But Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s trip to Southeast Asia—Thailand and then Vietnam—in early April 2015, suggests that Moscow is simultaneously hedging against China, as Beijing is visibly trying to... MORE
Moscow Likely to Choose Control of Territories Over Their Economic Development
The Russian government is considering building a new water link connecting the Caspian Sea to the ocean via the Azov and Black seas. The new route is supposed to be the shortest and the cheapest way to carry Chinese goods via Central Asia to Europe.... MORE