The Cypriot financial meltdown has rocked Moscow. Russia provided Cyprus in 2011 with a 2.5 billion-euro ($3.2 billion) low interest loan and believed the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should join in the bailout of a euro-zone member nation. Until now, the... MORE

Mongolian Minister of Defense Dashdemberel Bat-Erdene led a Mongolian military delegation to Moscow on February 17–21 for discussions that included preparations for their annual joint exercises. Included on the agenda was a visit to the 5th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Western Military District... MORE

The Russian government continues to optimize its security forces in the run-up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. At the beginning of March, Lieutenant-General Yevgeny Fuzhenko announced reforms of the troops under the command of the Russian Ministry of the Interior (Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del—MVD).... MORE

A stunning historical discovery was made at the first meeting of the revived Russian Military History Society when President Vladimir Putin asserted that the Bolsheviks used Finnish “armed formations” for executing the coup in October 1917 (Rossiskaya Gazeta, March 14). Even more remarkable was his... MORE

The appearance of a detachment of Russian Cossacks in Moldova’s Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia has not only unsettled some residents there but also spotlights Moscow’s efforts to use the Christian Turkic Gagauz people—alongside Transnistria—against the Moldovan government in Chisinau. The Cossacks’ presence incites a... MORE

Moscow’s plans to modernize the conventional Armed Forces by 2020 hinge upon the successful design and adoption of automated command and control (C2), which has presented numerous challenges during testing. Moscow now plans to rush through its introduction; yet, none of the Ground Forces brigades... MORE

Following his recent visit to Brussels, the secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Nikolai Bordyuzha, told the Russian press that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had been ignoring all attempts to establish a permanent dialogue on security issues common to both... MORE

On March 12, the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, entered into an unusually heated and public debate with Chechen officials on territorial issues. In a televised address, Yevkurov stated that the disputed Sunzha district in the area of the administrative border between Ingushetia and Chechnya... MORE

Uncharacteristically, the Chechen government announced the launch of a series of special operations on March 12, when a counter-terrorism operation regime was introduced in Chechnya’s Shali district. The announcement specified that the search for the militants would be carried out in areas outside of the... MORE

On March 9, four people were killed in three different parts of Dagestan. One incident took place in Khasavyurt district, which is predominantly populated by Chechens, Avars and Kumyks. Another incident happened in the town of Izberbash south of Makhachkala, which is mostly populated by... MORE