Nikolai Gogol’s satire “Nos” (The Nose) based on a St. Petersburg official’s nose separating from its owner and assuming an adventurous life of its own, fits the seemingly inexplicable shifts and twists in the current effort to reform Russia’s conventional armed forces. It seems that... MORE

Insurgency-related violence –and, apparently, simple criminal violence– continued in the North Caucasus this week, particularly in the republics Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan.In Kabardino-Balkaria, four gunmen charged into a café in the town of Chegem on February 2 and shot a group of traffic policemen who were... MORE

Amid reports by the Russian government that militant activity in Kabardino-Balkaria has increased four to five times (www.rosbalt.ru/2010/11/29/794929.html) –more than anywhere else in the North Caucasus region– local authorities are trying to belittle the role of rebel fighters against the backdrop of economic plans for... MORE

Russia’s ambassador to Moldova, Valery Kuzmin, insinuated via Chisinau media on February 1 that Moscow can grant Moldova a price discount on Russian gas, as it granted one to Ukraine, in return for military basing rights.Kuzmin said: “Moldovan authorities must execute the conditions of the... MORE

This week a special meeting chaired by President, Dmitry Medvedev, with Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, and the entire top Russian leadership in attendance made a final decision to enact a massive military pay increase beginning in January 2012. Defense Minister, Anatoliy Serdyukov, announced “a lieutenant... MORE

On January 26, the Russian government gave a presentation of the North Caucasus ski resorts project at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was aimed at attracting much needed foreign investment to the enterprise, which the government hopes will solve this volatile region’s... MORE

According to Russia’s decade-long military procurement plan the Navy will receive 4.7 trillion rubles ($159 billion) of the total 20 trillion rubles ($678 billion), a figure that Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin considers as being scary (Vedomosti, December 14, 2010). Of course, this builds upon existing... MORE

As the reform of Russia’s conventional armed forces continues, numerous policy planning issues have served to demonstrate the reactionary nature of many initiatives. Defense Minister, Anatoliy Serdyukov, has tried to avoid shouldering the blame for any mistakes while failing to prioritize policy. The latest instance... MORE

On January 29, Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, announced that investigators had determined the identity of the perpetrator of the bombing of Domodedovo airport in Moscow, which took place on January 24. According to official information, a suicide bomber detonated explosives... MORE

During the past month, President Dmitry Medvedev has turned into a disappearing and irrelevant figure in the Russian political arena. His lame-duck status was established beyond any reasonable doubt by the unreasonably harsh verdict against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in late 2010 (Nezavisimaya Gazeta,... MORE