Latest Articles about Russia
New Russian Military Doctrine Opposes NATO Enlargement
After several delays, the long-awaited new Russian military doctrine was finally approved by President Dmitry Medvedev on February 5. The document did not include the rumored lowering of the nuclear threshold, despite recent public comments on the issue to the contrary made by the Secretary... MORE
Russian Orthodox Church Prioritizes “Integration” With Kazakhstan
On January 16, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) Kirill Frolov arrived in Astana for a two-day visit. He attempted to lend a purely religious character to his journey to Kazakhstan, a predominantly Muslim country, and originally planned to visit Almaty. However, thick... MORE
Medvedev Approves New Russian Military Doctrine
On February 5, the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev finally signed the long-awaited new military doctrine, intended to guide defense policy over the next decade. In the presence of the senior civilian leadership of the government and legislative branches, Medvedev announced that he had signed both... MORE
Russia Finds Itself Passed its Security Prime
At the annual Munich security conference last weekend, Russia received as little attention as it had attracted at the Davos World Economic Forum in the previous week. The star presenter this year was the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, and hardly anyone reflected upon the... MORE
Georgia’s Arduous Attempt to Challenge Moscow’s Broadcasting Monopoly
On January 4, the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) inaugurated its first Russian language television channel: Pervyi Kavkazsky (First Caucasus) or 1-K. It initially operated as a cable television channel available within Georgia with simultaneous live broadcasting on the internet to reach a wider online audience.... MORE
FSB Accuses Georgia of Aiding al-Qaeda in the North Caucasus
Insurgent violence has continued unabated in the North Caucasus this week, with five federal servicemen dying in a shootout with insurgents in Chechnya yesterday (February 4) and Russia’s security services again accusing Georgia of aiding militants in the North Caucasus.A source in Chechnya’s security apparatus... MORE
Can Nabucco be Married Off to Gazprom?
Unexpectedly, the US State Department’s Special Envoy for Eurasian energy affairs, Richard Morningstar, seems to embrace the idea of allowing Gazprom to become a user of the Nabucco pipeline. Speaking in Washington at the Center for American Progress (a think-tank associated with left-leaning constituencies in... MORE
Russian Protests Grow as Economic Hardships Persist
The economic downturn in Russia seems to have transmuted into growing political discontent within the populace and the governing structures. Since last summer, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been proclaiming publicly that “the worst of the recession is over and growth is resuming” (Interfax, June... MORE
Azerbaijan’s Public Diplomacy Vis-à-Vis Russia
Azerbaijan recently achieved a major public diplomacy success in late January by organizing the first Russian-Azerbaijan Humanitarian Forum in Baku, which assembled more than 100 representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. Rectors of universities, heads of news agencies, high profile journalists and writers, composers and artists,... MORE
After Silencing Criticism in Chechnya, Kadyrov Moves on to the Rest of Russia
On February 2, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov’s lawyer Andrei Krasnenkov announced that Kadyrov had appealed to prosecutors to launch a criminal case against Lyudmila Alekseyeva and Vyacheslav Izmailov on defamation charges. According to Krasnenkov, at a May 2008 press conference Alekseyeva made the statement: “Kadyrov’s... MORE