While elements of units from all services in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were preparing for the military parade on October 1st, a much larger slice of the PLA was conducting routine unit training. Following several months of individual skill and small unit training, late... MORE

On October 26, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met the leaders of the defense industry, to consider its future and address issues that emerged in September during the Zapad 2009 joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises. He visited the Mashinostroyenia open joint-stock company in Reutov, one of the... MORE

Chechen authorities are increasingly reporting successes in operations against suicide bombers. Official data suggests that the number of suicide bombers has increased exponentially and that they are now occurring everywhere. The latest attempt on Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov’s life again made the issue of suicide... MORE

The French government and, apparently, the Élysée Palace are moving fast to sell at least one Mistral-class helicopter carrier to Russia, possibly for deployment in the Black Sea. Such a sale would endow Russia with a modern naval and amphibious warfare capability that Russia currently... MORE

On October 26, a group of demonstrators rallied in Moscow to protest against the results of the mayoral election in the southern Dagestani city of Derbent on October 11. Over 300 people were reported to have taken part in the protest. Derbent’s acting mayor, Felix... MORE

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov appears to have abruptly ended his courtship of Akhmed Zakaev, the exiled prime minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), calling the London-based separatist leader a “liar” and “hypocrite.”Speaking on October 27 during a meeting of the regional branch of... MORE

In early October, the Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Vladimir Popovkin announced the decision to take two heavy nuclear-powered missile cruisers (TAKR) out of conservation and restore them to the active fleet. This decision coming just one year after the Petr Velikii (Peter the Great),... MORE

Soon after amnesty was offered in early August 2009, few seemed to take notice when Osama Bin Laden surrendered to authorities. Two weeks later, the leader led more than 20 of his militant followers to do the same. In an interview that day, Bin Laden... MORE

Last month, the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the large-scale military exercises Zapad 2009 held in Russia’s Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad and in Belarus. In Kaliningrad, Medvedev observed a landing by marines with the support of naval battleships and airpower. In Belarus, along with President... MORE

On June 12, the liberal left Taraf daily published an unclassified document outlining an alleged action plan for the military to combat the “reactionary activities” against secularism. Allegedly the “Action Plan against Reactionaries (Irtica),” was prepared by senior staff Colonel Dursun Cicek and defined the... MORE