(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, July 15, 2021) “Putin’s main mistake,” Sergey Markov says, was not introducing Russian military forces into Ukraine in the spring of 2014, a failure that has led to the rise of “an occupation regime” there and the formation of an “anti-Russia.” With his new article, the Kremlin leader has laid the foundation […]
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(Interfax – May 31, 2021) The Primakov Readings, organized by the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will take place in Moscow on June 8-9. The topic of the 2021 readings is “Challenges to the Contemporary World Order”. Interfax is an information partner of the Primakov Readings 2021. IMEMO Director Feodor Voitolovsky […]
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MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) – Russia may use force if need be in response to unfriendly activities by other countries, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said. “The new edition of the National Security Strategy emphasizes that Russia seeks greater predictability, trust and security in the international arena. At the same time, it says that it is lawful to take […]
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“Tens of thousands of sailors and Marines will participate in the biggest U.S. naval exercise in a generation to test how the services will fight across vast distances as they prepare for possible conflict with China or Russia. Aircraft carriers, submarines, planes, unmanned vessels, and about 25,000 personnel will participate in Large Scale Exercise 2021 … [beginning] late summer. … […]
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As we near presidential “elections” in Syria, it is worth exploring what interests continue to drive Russia’s ongoing military intervention […]
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Putin’s aggressively anti-Western posture is helping the West to recover its lost self-discipline and unity […]
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“For Moscow it is the last geopolitical battleground where it holds the advantage over Washington and Beijing” “… [N]ew and refurbished bases [are] meant to service the Kremlin’s ambitions in the resource-rich Arctic. … combined to form a new military district … under … the Northern Fleet, Russia’s foremost Arctic naval force[] … [with fleet] headquarters … on the Kola […]
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Analysts say Moscow’s muted reaction to the diversion to Minsk of a Ryanair flight speaks to the Kremlin’s ambivalent view of the strongman. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Felix Light – May 24, 2021) In the hours after Belarus shocked the world by forcing a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk and arresting prominent opposition […]
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… The prospect of an invasion, unimaginable for most Europeans, has for the past seven years hung like a specter over this industrial port city located just 100 kilometers from Russian territory […]
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“Beijing and Moscow sense an opportunity in the face of fading U.S. influence and Covid fallout.” “China’s leading diplomat [Yang Jiechi, head of China’s central committee for foreign affairs,] will travel to Russia … for security talks, the latest sign of deepening [Sino-Russian] ties …. Xi Jinping and … Putin … [recently had a] video-link launch of a nuclear energy […]
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The head of the Levada Center … says that 43 to 44 percent of Russians think another invasion would boost Putin’s ratings, but 40 percent say that it would have precisely the opposite effect and spark mass dissatisfaction and protests […]
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… And so, more than two decades after NATO’s original 16-member Cold War composition was first enlarged to take in three former Warsaw Pact states, and with Putin poised to potentially stay in office into the 2030s, the past is very much present […]
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MOSCOW. May 20 (Interfax) – The Russian economy is not being militarized, however, anyone trying to encroach on its territory will receive a harsh response, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “The same thing has happened now and always: as soon as Russia gets stronger, a pretext is found to limit its development. As one of our emperors once said, ‘Everyone […]
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“Friction in other parts of the globe as well as climate change are fueling tensions in the high north.” “… [N]ew or updated [arctic] strategies … have appeared … from Canada, China, the EU, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the UK[,] [as well as] the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Department of Defense, Department for Homeland Security, […]
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Kyiv says it does not expect that next month’s NATO summit will produce a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Ukraine because some members … worry that such a move would provoke Russia […]
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The U.S. ambassador for disarmament says preparations for a possible meeting between … Putin and … Biden are under way […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, May 2, 2021) No one disputes that there are enough reasons on the ground for conflicts among the countries of Central Asia over borders and enclaves, but according to Moscow military analyst Vladimir Prokhvatilov, the number and intensity of such conflicts has increased because of Western civil society programs (fondsk.ru/news/2021/05/01/mjagkaja-sila-i-prigranichnye-konflikty-v-centralnoj-azii-53486.html). According to […]
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Negotiators in the conflict in eastern Ukraine have failed to agree a truce ahead of Orthodox Easter later this week amid a surge in fighting […]
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… Zelenskiy has urged the Ukrainian military to remain on alert despite Russia’s drawdown of its troops from the country’s borders, saying they could return “at any moment” […]
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“… Fears of an imminent invasion have been stoked by the large build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine’s eastern border and additional forces sent to Crimea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the announcement and thanked his international partners for their support. … [E]stimates … vary from around 40,000 new troops largely stationed in the city of Voronezh some 130 km […]
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Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise to leadership more than 20 years ago, tensions have increased steadily between Russia and the United States […]
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Not a day goes by without dire warnings of an imminent Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Such warnings do not come out of the blue […]
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… The U.S. Navy routinely operates [in] the Black Sea and flies reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace there to monitor Russian naval activity and troop movements […]
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KYIV. April 7 (Interfax) – Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleksiy Danilov said, when commenting on the situation surrounding a buildup of Russian forces in the proximity of the border with Ukraine, that “there is a certain intensification of all processes” today, adding that Kyiv seeks to avert any escalation of the situation in Donbas. “Let’s […]
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[Ukrainian chief of the general staff, Gen. Ruslan] Khomchak first made … accusations of a Russian military buildup in a speech to Ukraine’s parliament on March 30 […]
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(The Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 18, Issue 45 – Vladimir Socor – March 18, 2021) Russia’s military “peacekeeping” intervention in Upper (“Nagorno”) Karabakh in November 2020 laid the foundation for a Russian de facto protectorate (see EDM, December 8, 10, 2020). The Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020) has resulted in a partition of […]
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“The same factors that led up to his incursion into Ukraine are in place again, including domestic protests, a struggling economy and a desire for glory” “… [O]n the seventh anniversary of the Crimean Anschluss, many of the same vectors that produced the invasion of Ukraine are here again. … There are at least two reasons for Putin to be […]
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“The West has imposed sanctions on Belarus’ elite, but they are not enough to oust President Alexander Lukashenko. Increasingly the opposition and its supporters are targeting international companies doing business with Belarus.” “International multinational firms are coming under increased pressure to break business ties with Belarus as opposition leaders apply a ‘name and shame’ campaign …. Belarus has been wracked […]
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“Armenia would welcome .. expansion of a Russian military base on its territory and … redeployment of some Russian forces closer to its border with Azerbaijan … its defence minister said …. Ethnic Armenian[s] … in … Nagorno-Karabakh … ceded … territory in and around the enclave to Azerbaijan in a six-week conflict in 2020 … that claimed thousands of […]
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[According to polls,] more Russians now than two years ago want their government to spend more on healthcare and education and only half as many want it to devote more money to defense and security […]
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The basic questions at play … are not unique to Ukraine, though they are sharpened by Russia’s aggression in the Donbas and Crimea: Who defines the boundary between disinformation and dissonant opinions? […]
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“A Russian-brokered peace deal appears to be holding but challenges over POWs and displaced people have yet to be resolved.” “… Deep-seated hostilities [reportedly] will make it tough for Armenians and Azeris to live side by side, at least in the short term …. [T]he region[] [has a] history of ethnic animosity between … largely Christian Armenians and mostly Muslim, […]
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“… Putin … hosted … counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan[] [for] their first meeting since a … Nov. 10 peace deal end[ing] 44 days of hostilities in which … Azerbaijani [forces] routed Armenian forces … reclaim[ing] control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas. Nagorno-Karabakh … within Azerbaijan … had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed […]
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“The Navy is eyeing a tougher posture in the Arctic to push back against Moscow … [T]op Pentagon officials said … the U.S. could launch ‘freedom of navigation’ operations near Russia’s Arctic coastline. Such operations would resemble Navy exercises in the South China Sea, an area in which American ships regularly contest growing Chinese territorial claims. Officials believe similar movements […]
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(Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 17, Issue 179 – Paul Goble – Dec. 16, 2020) The Azerbaijani military’s use of Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), purchased from Turkey, played such a prominent role in Baku’s victory over Armenian forces during the Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020) that defense analysts around the world are […]
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“The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution … urging Russia to immediately withdraw all its military forces from Crimea ‘and end its temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine without delay.’ The vote in the 193-member world body was 63-17 with 62 abstentions …. Russia sent troops into Crimea and annexed the peninsula in 2014. It has supported separatist rebels […]
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Former Belarusian presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has said that she is willing to lead the country in the transitional period […]
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“… Azerbaijan made significant territorial gains but gave no casualty numbers, while Armenia said last month it had counted 2,425 dead soldiers. Now Azerbaijan says 2,783 of its forces died in the Nagorno-Karabakh war and another 100 are missing in action. It brings to over 5,000 the number of soldiers confirmed to have died. At least 143 civilians were also […]
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… analysts have viewed Azerbaijan as the big winner, Russia and Turkey as having gained …, and Armenia as the big loser, … Vorobyev says. … the reality for all four … is in fact far more mixed […]
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Russia should withdraw its peacekeeping force from the self-proclaimed Transnistria republic, Moldova’s pro-European president-elect [Maia Sandu] said […]
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(Article text ©2020 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Ron Synovitz – Nov. 24, 2020 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/armenians-see-russia-as-savior-not-scapegoat-in-nagorno-karabakh-war/30966988.html) As war raged this autumn over Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, some Armenians expressed a sense of betrayal that long-standing ally Russia wasn’t providing more support to ethnic Armenian fighters in the conflict. But any […]
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“Without specialized aircraft and equipment, Biden administration would have difficult time re-entering post-Cold War pact.” “The Trump administration formally shut the door on the Open Skies treaty Sunday, exiting the agreement while moving to get rid of … U.S. Air Force planes … used to carry out the … accord[, had had dated to the closing of the Cold War […]
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“… Under the cease-fire, nearly 2,000 [Russian] peacekeepers have been deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist enclave controlled by an ethnic Armenian government within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan. … reinforc[ing] the Kremlin’s view that its sphere of influence includes Azerbaijan and Armenia …. [and providing] another counterweight to geopolitical rival[] Turkey, a close Azerbaijan ally and key customer for […]
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“Moldova’s pro-European election winner Maia Sandu … vowed balanced ties with the West and Russia as Moscow-backed incumbent Igor Dodon conceded … and asked … supporters to refrain from violence. Sandu’s election is … as a major blow to the Kremlin[,] …. [that] wanted polarized Moldova to remain in its sphere of influence …[P]olitics in Moldova[,] … [located between Ukraine […]
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“Russia has escalated its provocative encounters in the North Pacific this year, harassing boats in U.S. fishing waters and sending bombers toward Alaska’s shores.” “The crew … was laying out … long cod-catching line well within U.S. fishing territory in the Bering Sea when a voice crackled over the … radio … issuing commands: The ship was in danger, it […]
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“Brokered by Russia and Turkey …. [t]he peace deal marks one of the biggest shake-ups in a turbulent region at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East since the collapse of the Soviet empire, which also began in Nagorno-Karabakh. … [A]fter 25 years of waiting for the return of its territory, Azerbaijan went back to war. … aided […]
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“… a six-week-long conflict with Armenia over … Nagorno-Karabakh … resulted in major gains for Azerbaijan and its Turkish-backed military …. A truce … freezes the conflict … includ[ing] agreements that [Russian ally] Armenia … must hand over additional land …. While the truce was brokered by Moscow — which has deployed [nearly 2,000] peacekeepers — … Azerbaijan’s success with […]
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