The Georgian parliament plans to hold hearings, on April 18, regarding the State Security Service of Georgia’s (SSSG) recently published report detailing the risks and challenges to the country’s security. The report covers issues related to the occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, terrorism,... MORE

When a country is faced with demographic decline—an excess of deaths over births and a reduction in the number of individuals annually entering adulthood—one of the first areas its government must undertake hard choices is military conscription policy. That is exactly what the Russia government... MORE

On March 29, during the ArmHiTec-2018 international exhibition of arms and defense technologies in Yerevan, Armenia, the government of Uzbekistan signed an agreement with Russia to purchase more than ten Mi-35M military helicopters (RIA Novosti, March 29). The deputy director of Russia’s Federal Service for... MORE

Army General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, presented his reflections on future conflicts, on March 24. Notably, he argued that “the enemy’s economy and command-and-control system (C2) will be priority targets [for potential Russian attacks].” And aside... MORE

It has become increasingly common to proclaim the present standoff between Russia and the West as a “new cold war,” and one possibly worse and potentially more dangerous than the first because of a lack of agreed rules of play or crisis management. But until... MORE

In mid-March, the Armenian Ministry of Defense (MoD) released an 18-page strategic document entitled “2018–2024 Modernization Program for the Armenian Armed Forces.” The document lays out a framework for boosting technological innovation in the defense and security sector, raising the moral resiliency of Armenian troops,... MORE

The Airborne Troops (Vozdushno-Desantnye Voyska—VDV) have been much less affected by the military reforms initiated in 2008 than any of the other services in the Russian Armed Forces. Unlike the Ground Forces, the VDV has pointedly retained its divisional structure, despite plans to move toward... MORE

On March 24, the chief of the Russian General Staff (CGS), Army General Valery Gerasimov, delineated current top brass thinking on future warfare. Gerasimov placed his remarks within the context of Russia’s deteriorating relations with the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).... MORE

Moscow announced last week (March 29) that 60 American diplomats would be expelled, delivering a “mirror” response to every Western country that had sanctioned Russia in solidarity with the United Kingdom (see EDM, March 29). What appeared to be a tit-for-tat response in a diplomatic... MORE

The Moscow-backed authorities of separatist South Ossetia released, on March 23, Georgian citizens David Gerkeuli and Iosif Gundishvili (Imedinews March 23). The two men had been arrested by South Ossetian KGB agents (the special service of this breakaway republic still carries the old Soviet name)... MORE