This week the Moscow daily Gazeta published extracts of a leaked defense ministry document describing the results of military training this year –providing a rare opportunity to know firsthand the actual battle readiness of the entire Russian armed forces. According to Russian military tradition, the... MORE

Russia’s relatively low domestic gas prices have been seen as encouraging high consumption rates and hindering investments in gas production. The country’s gas monopoly Gazprom has long complained about unprofitable sales and pressed the government to hike regulated domestic prices. Gazprom has insisted that its... MORE

“The Wind is coming from the west up the Gulf of Finland.” Those who have read Alexander Pushkin's Mednyi Sadnik (The Bronze Horseman) know that such winds bring with them long waves into the Gulf of Finland and powerful storms that flood St. Petersburg. In... MORE

Moscow plans to sell helicopters on a commercial basis to NATO in support of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations in Afghanistan. Sources within the Russian aviation industry indicated that the Alliance is interested in procuring civil transport helicopters to enhance prompt and safe troop... MORE

On November 5 the Finnish and Swedish governments gave Nord Stream, the Gazprom-led consortium, permission to lay the pipeline through their respective economic zones on the Baltic seabed, on an approved route from Russia to Germany. The Danish government had given its permission in late... MORE

Today, all Russia’s actions in the south are dictated by the increasingly active armed underground in the North Caucasus and Russia’s desire to oppose its growing influence on the region’s indigenous population. In the summer of 2009 alone 462 acts of violence were reported, while... MORE

Russian economic and political penetration in parts of former Yugoslavia proceeds apace in the wake of President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Belgrade. Serbia risks turning into an Armenia of the Balkans by accepting Russian economic tutelage (EDM, October 27, 28). On November 6 the government... MORE

On October 28, two authoritative Moscow-based business dailies Vedomosti and Kommersant quoted sources as saying that the arrest warrant for Mikhail Gutseriyev, a top Russian banker and oil tycoon of Ingush origins, had been cancelled and replaced with “the promise not leave” (much as this... MORE

President Dmitry Medvedev is today paying a very special visit to Germany in order to participate in celebrations that have more significance for contemporary Russia than he dares to admit. Twenty years ago he was a fresh graduate of the Leningrad University with some democratic... MORE

November 3 marked the 200th day since the Russian government formally ended the “counter-terrorist” operation it launched in Chechnya in September 1999, and statistics collected by the Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) website show that more blood has been spilled since the April 16 announcement of... MORE