Latest Articles about Military/Security
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A Prolonged War in Ukraine Is Advantageous to Russia
On June 18, Lithuania blocked the transit by rail of sanctioned goods between Kaliningrad Oblast and the rest of Russia , a step that Russian propaganda immediately claimed could be a harbinger of a larger war in Europe involving Moscow and the North Atlantic Treaty... MORE
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Putin’s War in Ukraine Exacerbates Russia’s Serious Demographic Problems
Wars almost invariably have serious demographic consequences, not only for the countries attacked but also for the attackers. Armed conflicts create immediate losses in lives and a decline in births on both sides, aggravate other pre-existing negative demographic trends and, most importantly, disrupt the number... MORE
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Lukashenka, Putin and Tikhanovskaya: A Long Echo of Belarus’s Historical Division
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka paid yet another visit to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, last week, June 23–25. Prior to this, the two heads of state had already met five times this year, each time on Putin’s turf. Those earlier meetings occurred on February 18... MORE
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Could Russia’s Next President Be a Non-Russian?
As Russian President Vladimir Putin approaches his 70th birthday and 23rd year in power, speculation about his possible successor has increasingly surfaced in newspaper articles, blog posts and even some official press releases (RIA Novosti, January 25; Meduza, April 7; T.me/CenterCounteringDisinformation, April 21). Predictably, most of... MORE
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Cossacks: Avatars of Religious Nationalism
Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine is over four months old at this point, and the Cossacks have played a role in ostensibly sanctifying the ongoing conflict. The narrative of the war as a blessed mission for Russia’s dominion over Christian Orthodox lands is typified by Patriarch... MORE
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As Ties With Moscow Deteriorate, Kazakhstan Seeks Allies and Export Routes Elsewhere
Relations between Moscow and Nur-Sultan have been deteriorating since the beginning of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 re-invasion of Ukraine (see EDM, April 5, May 12). In response to unfriendly commentaries and actions by Russia, Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has sought to distance himself from... MORE
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Russia Pushes for Republican Units in the North Caucasus to Fight in Ukraine
One after another, authorities in the North Caucasus republics are announcing the creation of volunteer units for fighting Ukraine. The Russian military command proposed the establishment of a Dagestani rifle company on the basis of the 136th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, stationed in Buinaksk,... MORE
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Russian Experiment With De-Modernization Yields Negative Results
The post-Soviet transformation took Russia from a fledgling democracy to a corrupt autocracy, but, since the start of the war against Ukraine, the Kremlin has taken a new turn, which amounts to a resolute top-down effort at reversing what progress has been achieved in modernizing... MORE
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Can Russia Repeat the ‘Crimea Scenario’ in Ukraine’s Kherson Region?
As a result of its full-scale re-invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24, Russia presently occupies most of Kherson Oblast, a southern region with a million inhabitants that borders on Crimea. In fact, Russian troops captured Kherson with a strike from the Crimean Peninsula, which... MORE
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The Purchase of F-16s: A Feasible but Thorny Turkish Mission in the US
Buying S-400 surface-to-air missile systems from Russia has become one of the main sources of dispute between Washington and Ankara. As a result of that purchase, Turkey was removed from the F-35 stealth jet fighter program in 2019; and the following year, it fell under... MORE