“… The … conflict has brought renewed focus on the regional threat posed by Russian revanchism and presents challenges to security and stability … in the region and elsewhere. The geopolitical implications are immense. The conflict has established new benchmarks … [for] modern warfare and demonstrated anew … how dangerous the world is. We invited a group of RAND experts […]
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“Long-range missile strikes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure have been … prominent and persistent …. … [T]he CSIS report Putin’s Missile War found that Russian missile attacks in 2022 … caused major damage to Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure but … failed to achieve the kind of decisive strategic effects … Moscow … likely sought. Into 2023, Russia has persisted in […]
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“Russia may not have enough missiles to continue conducting massive strikes against Ukraine for more than three months …. Estonia’s Intelligence Chief Margo Grosberg said that based on Russia’s current capability for producing precision-guided munitions, it could continue to carry out the missile strikes … for three to four more month …. [His] ‘more pessimistic’ outlook is … six to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 20, 2019) Russia told an international organization set up to verify a ban on nuclear tests that a military testing accident in northern Russia earlier this month was none of its business and that handing it radiation data was entirely voluntary. Russia has acknowledged that five nuclear workers were killed in the explosion on […]
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“After the … death of the [INF Treaty], a new arms race appears to be taking shape … [with] more players … money and … weapons …. [N]ational security adviser … Bolton[] has talked about letting the last strategic-arms control treaty, New START, die in February 2021, without extending it another five years, as foreseen in the accord …. With […]
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“… Owing to [various] treaty commitments, [the United States and Russia], which still hold the vast majority of … nuclear weapons … have reduced their combined total of warheads from roughly 63,000 in 1986 to about 8,100 today. … the agreements helped avoid nuclear conflict …. The Russian violation of the I.N.F. Treaty centers on an SSC-8 land-based cruise missile. […]
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(Article ©2018 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Mike Eckel – Dec. 3, 2018 – also appeared at rferl.org/a/standoff-over-inf-treaty-enters-new-phase-as-u-s-reveals-details-of-russian-missile/29634906.html) The United States’ top intelligence official has quietly revealed key new details about Russia’s alleged violations of a bedrock Cold War nuclear treaty, an unexpected move that comes as U.S. officials push to build new support from European allies. […]
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“The U.S. remains on a path to withdraw from the [INF Treaty] … citing alleged [Russian] violations … but continues to consult with its allies …. [DNI Dan Coats] …. said he will brief European allies at a [NATO] meeting … [T]he Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty … bars … ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 […]
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“… Erdogan received … Putin in Ankara … with a crowded agenda … including … Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defence system and progress with the TurkStream natural gas pipeline …. even more challenging … with the scheduled arrival of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and … the complicated task of finding an end-game […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 13 (Interfax) – The Russian Strategic Missile Forces comprise about 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles with various types of warheads, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces Commander, Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev, told the Defense Ministry’s newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda in an interview. “As of today, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces operate about 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles with warheads of various types […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Eli Lake – June 6, 2016) When President Barack Obama came into office, the fact that Russia sold the U.S. the rocket engines it needed for launches was a feature of U.S. foreign policy, not a bug. Obama was trying to reset the U.S. relationship with Moscow, and that meant finding areas where the two former […]
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The Daily Telegraph covers the prospect of the EU and Russia launching nuclear missiles against asteroids or comets that threaten the earth. The European Commission funded Russian scientists to develop plans to save the world from rogue asteroids by blowing them up with nuclear weapons. … Russia’s top space research institute teamed up with missile and rocket engineers to look […]
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Russia has launched airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria using strategic long-distance bombers for the first time. Russian experts see the use of long-range missiles as a testing ground for new types of weapons, as well as a good way of intensifying the airstrikes in Syria, since other accessible resources have now been exhausted. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru […]
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October 13, 2015 The New York Times covers the Dutch investigation of the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over an area of Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed rebels. A 15-month inquiry into the disintegration of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in the skies over eastern Ukraine has concluded that the aircraft was most likely attacked from the ground by a Russian-made […]
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(Interfax – June 28, 2015) Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul has said NATO is not planning to invade Russia and there is no need for the Russian leadership to deploy S-400 air defense systems on its Western borders. “NATO will never invade Russia,” he twitted on Sunday. The former ambassador said the Russian leadership is groundlessly concerned about […]
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(Interfax – June 9, 2015) Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoliy Antonov has demanded an explanation from the USA regarding alleged plans to deploy ballistic and cruise missiles in Europe, which he has said would mean a US “exit” from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, privately-owned Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN reported on 9 June. “The measures the American sources […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 26, 2015) The right time to begin implementing a contract for the delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran has not yet come, Deputy Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Yevgeny Lukyanov told Interfax on Tuesday. “A decision concerning S-300 deliveries to Iran has been adopted, but the implementation of this project will take time. As […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – April 15, 2015) Russia’s decision this week to lift a self-imposed embargo on selling powerful S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Iran is likely an attempt to turn the Middle Eastern country into a major new market for Russian arms exports. As the international community edges closer to a nuclear deal with Iran, the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – April 15, 2015) Moscow’s decision to lift its unilateral ban on exporting advanced S-300 air defense system to Iran will boost the Islamic republic’s air defense capabilities, but their military impact depends on the outcome of ongoing negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. The air defense systems, built by Russia’s largest defense contractor […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – February 13, 2015) The launch of Russia’s first Unified Space System satellite Tundra has been delayed until June 2015 for technical reasons, Russian business daily Kommersant has reported, citing sources in the space industry and Russia’s Defense Ministry. The satellite was due to enter orbit in 2013 and replace the outmoded OKO-1 satellites. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Golts – October 7, 2014) Muscovites are staging a campaign against Western sanctions called: “Fighting sanctions with fashion.” Participants trade in their old T-shirts with Western slogans for new shirts bearing such inscriptions as: “Sanctions? My Iskander laughs at sanctions,” or “The Topol couldn’t care less about sanctions” – references to Russia’s Iskander and […]
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MOSCOW. July 21 (Interfax) – Russia did not provide the militia in southeastern Ukraine with Buk missile systems, the Russian Defense Ministry said. “The Russian Federation did not hand Buk missile systems, or other kinds of weapons or military hardware, to the militia,” said Gen. Andrei Kartopolov, chief of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Department.
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ANKARA, Turkey, April 11 (RIA Novosti) – The US guided-missile destroyer Donald Cook and French intelligence warship Dupuy de Lôme have entered the Black Sea, the Turkish newspaper Sabah reported Friday. According to the US military command, the dispatch of the Donald Cook destroyer was a move to reassure the country’s NATO allies in the region amid heightened tensions due […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – April 8, 2014) The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned Ukraine against a reportedly planned sale of technology for long-range missiles, saying the Kiev administration was illegitimate but still needed to act responsibly on the world stage. Citing two international nonproliferation treaties, to which Ukraine is a signatory – the International Code of […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/RIA Novosti – rbth.ru – Konstantin Bogdanov, RIA Novosti – December 16, 2013) Russian officials have expressed their sharp criticism towards the U.S. plans for the so-called “Prompt Global Strike” initiative. Are they justified? What does this “Prompt Global Strike” represent, how can it interfere with the Russian plans and how can it be opposed? Around the […]
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(Interfax – VLADIVOSTOK, Russia. September 21, 2013) The Kremlin’s chief of staff, in comments on a recent find in Syria, has dismissed suspicions that a Cyrillic inscription on a splinter of a rocket that apparently carried a chemical charge was evidence that the Syrian government was the perpetrator of last month’s chemical attacks near Damascus. “A marking in Cyrillic has […]
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(Interfax – August 30, 2013) The Syrian Armed Forces might possess S-300 surface-to-air missile systems in addition to S-200, Buk-M1-2, Buk-M2E, Pantsir-S1E, S-125 Neva and S-125M Pechyora systems, which would allow Damascus to successfully respond to U.S. air and sea missile attacks, a Moscow military source familiar with the situation said. “Syria’s air defense systems are able to appropriately respond […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Ekaterina Zabrovskaya, Yelena Kim, RBTH – April 10, 2013) Regardles of the fact that Russian pundits are concerned by growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, most argue that a full-scale war will not break out. Although the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs has advised diplomatic missions to leave the country by April […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax) – A Russian deputy foreign minister has slammed the U.S. State Department for what he argued is too much attention to “routine matters” in Russia’s foreign policy. “It’s surprising that routine matters should be attracting such close attention, including public attention,” Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax on Thursday in comments on a statement by a State Department […]
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