Latest Articles about Military/Security
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Why Mozambique Is Outsourcing Counter-Insurgency to Russia: The Historical Relationship
A new government offensive in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province is the latest attempt to eliminate shadowy Islamist insurgents in a region whose untapped energy reserves could reverse the country’s economic misfortunes and the damage inflicted by decades of civil war and on-again, off-again insurgencies... MORE
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Key Features of Russia’s Grom 2019 Nuclear Exercise
Russia held its annual Grom (Thunder) strategic nuclear forces exercise on October 15–17 (see EDM, October 21, 22). About 12,000 service personnel; 213 launchers of the Strategic Missile Forces; up to 105 aircraft, including five strategic missile carriers; as many as 15 surface ships; 5... MORE
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Russia Ponders the Burden of Its ‘Victory’ in Syria
The memorandum of understanding on Syria signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Sochi, on October 22, was seen as a triumph in Moscow (see EDM, October 24); but the jubilation evaporated in a matter of days. The Kremlin... MORE
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Oleg Deripaska and His Business Empire: Security Risks for Ukraine
In May 2018, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine placed Russian billionaire and “aluminum magnate” Oleg Deripaska, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as three companies related to him (United Company RUSAL and its Moscow- and Cyprus-based branches, Judson... MORE
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Latin America Emerges as a Russian Theater of Operations
It has only recently become clear to analysts in the United States that Russia is playing a big role in Latin America to destabilize Washington’s alliance system and threaten US interests. Despite the costs involved in sustaining Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, Russia’s three main “proxies”... MORE
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Putin Sees Africa as a Battleground Against the West
President Vladimir Putin views Africa not as an end in itself, even when he and Russia obviously benefit directly (Rosbalt, January 19; see EDM, October 15), but rather as a battlefield in his renewed cold war against the West. This Soviet-style approach contains within it... MORE
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Putin’s Intricate Syrian Balancing Act
For several years, the United States has fought the Islamic State in Syria without large troop deployments or any significant casualties by maintaining a close alliance with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—the local, secular, anti-Islamist army of the Kurdish-dominated Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, also... MORE
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Turkish Military Operation in Syria Complicates Georgia’s Foreign Policy
On October 17, a few days after the start of the Turkish military incursion into northern Syria, Turkey’s ambassador to Georgia, Fatma Ceren Yazgan, who does not appear often in front of the press, invited Georgian and foreign journalists to a news conference in Tbilisi.... MORE
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Grom 2019 Tests Russia’s Nuclear Deterrent
On October 15–17, Moscow staged a nationwide test of its nuclear deterrent in the strategic command-staff exercise (Strategicheskiye Komandno-Shtabnyye Ucheniya—SKShU) Grom (Thunder) 2019. The exercise involved the Strategic Rocket Forces (Raketnye Voyska Strategicheskogo Naznacheniya—RVSN), Long-Range Aviation, and Military Transport Aviation (Voyenno-Transportnoy Aviatsii—VTA). The participating forces tested the... MORE
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Russian-Chinese Military ‘Alliance’ Both More and Less Than It Appears
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement earlier this month (October 3) that his country is working with China to build a common missile-defense radar system attracted enormous attention around the world, especially in the United States (Valdaiclub.com, October 15; see EDM, October 10); but his reference... MORE