Ukraine’s leadership has left Moscow’s invitation to join the Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan Customs Union unanswered even after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally traveled to Kyiv to advertise its benefits. Instead, Putin was told once more that the problem of expensive Russian gas is... MORE

Undermining their own negotiating position, Ukraine’s top leaders sound desperate for a price discount on Russian gas, and hurriedly offer pre-emptive concessions to Moscow. On April 21 President, Viktor Yanukovych, declared, “Ukraine cannot afford this [current] price. The situation is on the edge. Our industry... MORE

Russia’s intelligence services reported on the night of April 18 that they had identified the body of Israpil Validzhanov, who was better known as Emir Hassan, the head of Dagestan’s Sharia Jamaat armed resistance movement, among four militants killed near the village of Tashkapur in... MORE

Russia’s abstention on the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 helped open the door to Western military action on a limited scale in Libya. The Obama administration led the military action initially, under its rubric of humanitarian intervention and an assumed responsibility to protect. Barring a... MORE

The United States and Western Europe’s residual military powers have undertaken in Libya another war of choice. Russia ushered them into it by not vetoing the UN Security Council’s resolution that authorized the intervention. The conflict quickly turned into a stalemate, which Russia is now... MORE

In an annual government report to the Duma on April 20 that lasted together with the Q&A more than four hours, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin outlined his economic and political agenda for the long-term future – at least until 2020. This was Putin’s third annual... MORE

Aslan Kazakov’s description of Soviet tactics in the North Caucasus at the dawn of the Soviet era is strongly reminiscent of the modern reality in the region. “[In the 1920’s] officers of the local OGPU (Soviet secret police) department, jointly with detachments of state security... MORE

A critical test for the reform of the Russian armed forces is whether and to what extent a new generation of professional non-commissioned officers (NCOs) can be formed. Marshal Zhukov once stated, “I and the NCOs run the Army.” Yet, the NCO cadre has effectively... MORE

The Russian Internet catalogue of dissertations, Dslib.net, published a remarkable work by Aslan Kazakov, “The activities of the Kabardino-Balkarian security bodies in neutralizing the subversive actions of émigré organizations in 1920-1950.” The study was done in 2005, but its importance has only grown since then,... MORE

Russia belongs among the fast-growing emerging economies and to the Asia-Pacific region – that was the message that President Dmitry Medvedev tried to deliver at the summit of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russian, India, China and South Africa) and during the Boao Forum for Asia... MORE