Russian State Duma deputy in the Committee on Defense Viktor Vodolatsky, who is also the supreme ataman (head) of the Union of Cossack Forces in Russia and Abroad, openly admitted that Russian Cossacks are actively engaged in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the... MORE

The newly-installed “prime minister of the Donetsk people’s republic (DPR),” Aleksandr Zakharchenko, was apparently asked to convey a reassuring message to Russia’s public in anticipation of a Ukrainian siege of the city of Donetsk. Following six weeks of military reverses and shrinkage of “DPR’s” territory,... MORE

The role of Russia’s Armed Forces and its proxies in Ukraine has been subject to much speculation. Throughout the crisis, the Kremlin has pursued a course of “plausible deniability” in its use of hard power, or kept the threat of large-scale invasion lurking in the... MORE

Building a giant version of Transnistria in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces (Donbas) is Russia’s current policy, but it was not its start-off option. It became a fall-back plan when Moscow’s even more ambitious “Novorossiya” project failed (at least temporarily) in the other six provinces... MORE

A high level of secrecy was the defining feature of the Chechen militants under the command of Doku Umarov. Even news of the split within the Chechen insurgency’s ranks was transmitted mainly by the neighboring jamaats, rather than by the Chechens. This situation has radically... MORE

Western diplomacy seems about to revert to pressuring Ukraine into a disadvantageous armistice and negotiations with Russia’s protégés in the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics.” This could become the basis for creating a Transnistria-type Russian protectorate, frozen in place and time on Ukraine’s territory (see... MORE

Executive Summary The Russia-supported separatists operating in eastern Ukraine as well as some of their backers in Russia are increasingly espousing a radical ideology based on a meld of Christian Orthodoxy, expansionist Eurasianism, and irredentist state aggression. One important figure closely tied into this group... MORE

Between July 30 and August 4, flash skirmishes erupted along the Armenia-Azerbaijan contact line. While small-scale ceasefire violations have been relatively common, the recent events caused the highest casualty rates this frozen conflict has seen since 2008. According to official sources, 13 Azerbaijani soldiers were... MORE

The annual celebration of Russia’s elite Airborne Forces (Vozdushno Desantnye Voyska—VDV) on August 2, 2014, combined shows of strength with loutish behavior. Traditional displays of strength range from breaking bricks on VDV personnel, hand-to-hand combat and other macho shows. Celebration is less restrictive, especially among... MORE

On August 1, at Moscow’s Poklonnaya Hill military memorial, President Vladimir Putin inaugurated a monument to Russian soldiers who fought in the First World War. On the hundredth anniversary of that war’s outbreak, the Kremlin has decided retroactively to honor those soldiers as heroes, and... MORE