(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer – November 7, 2014) Russian troops marched in Red Square to commemorate a World War II parade held under the noses of German invaders in 1941 two days after President Vladimir Putin defended a 1939 non-aggression pact with Hitler. Six thousand soldiers and cadets accompanied by World War II-era warplanes and other weaponry today […]
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MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) – Allegations voiced by Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and a number of representatives from the United States and NATO about Russian troops supposedly moving toward the country’s border with Ukraine have no grounds and are based on rumors, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday. “These announcements were made citing some ‘reports’ without any […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – November 7, 2014) Russia has launched ‘Operation Domino’ against Ukraine, says Ukraine’s security service, SBU. Kyiv says the Kremlin is flooding Ukraine’s Donbass with guerilla fighters and their military trainers, intending to use the rebel-held region as a bridgehead for further expansion across Ukrainian territory. According to SBU spokesperson Mariyan Lubkivsky, speaking on a […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 5, 2014) If anyone is going to carry out military aggression against Russia, Aleksandr Khramchikhin, the deputy head of the Moscow Institute for Political and Military Analysis, says, it will not be the West as many Russians think but rather China; and when China does so – and that rather than […]
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[“Mr. Putin resumes his chipping away at Ukraine” – Washington Post editorial – Nov. 3, 2014] The Washington Post editors characterize unauthorized elections held by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine as another stage in Russian aggression: Russia has taken another significant step toward creating a puppet state inside Ukraine. Over the weekend the Moscow-controlled cities of Donetsk and Luhansk and nearby […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 5, 2014) Ever more commentators are suggesting that a new round of Russian military aggression in Ukraine is likely in order to secure a Russian-controlled land corridor to Crimea, an action that some analysts say would cost Russia more killed and wounded than it has suffered in any conflict since World […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 4, 2014) One of the most frequently invoked explanations for the inability of leaders to cope with a challenge is that it is something fundamentally new that they could not have been expected to recognize, understand, and know precisely how to respond. That has been the case in Ukraine and the […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 3, 2014) Vladimir Putin has a very clear strategy in Ukraine: first, sow panic among Ukrainians and the West and then wait, then provoke Ukrainians into doing things that distance them from the West, and then wait; invade when both Ukrainians and the West are off balance; and then repeat the […]
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KIEV, November 2 (RIA Novosti) – Kiev has claimed to observe movement of military equipment and troops from Russia to the Donbas region, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council’s spokesperson Andriy Lysenko said in a statement Sunday, but failed to provide evidence. “The intensive movement of military equipment and troops from the territory of the Russian Federation to the territory […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – October 24, 2014) While top Russian officials and pro-Kremlin politicians continue to paint NATO as an existential threat to Russia and even an instigator of the Ukraine crisis, Moscow has been working to strengthen the legitimacy of its own security organization: the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). But while this bundling of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – October 22, 2014) As Sweden’s navy goes on its sixth day of hunting a suspected Russian submarine, Swedish defense officials announced on Tuesday that they intend to force the mystery vessel, if found, to surface “with armed force, if necessary,” the English-language Swedish newspaper The Local reported. The announcement that Sweden is […]
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STOCKHOLM, October 21 (RIA Novosti) – The Swedish Armed Forces admitted Monday evening that they have failed to maintain transparency and issued false information about the whereabouts of the alleged foreign submarine in the Stockholm archipelago. “The Armed Forces are conducting an intelligence operation in the Stockholm archipelago. . . We are supposed to do this with maximum transparency while […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 21, 2014) Many in both Ukraine and the Russian Federation have suggested in recent days that a new and large-scale Russian military attack in Ukraine may be imminent, but perhaps the clearest evidence for that has been provided by an unexpected source: Ella Panfilova, the Russian human rights ombudsman. In an […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, October 16, 2014) US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel’s statement on the necessity of preparing the American army for “dealing with the Russian armed forces” is evidence that military scenarios near the borders of the Russian Federation are being worked on, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu has told journalists. “Chuck Hagel’s point on the necessity of preparing […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 11, Issue 183 – Pavel Felgenhauer – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – October 16, 2014) In a series of recently published interviews, President Vladimir Putin (kremlin.ru, October 15), Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (Interfax, October 15) and national security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, October 15) have outlined Moscow’s strategic vision of the world after the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 16, 2014) U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has issued a warning to his country’s armed forces, saying they should be prepared for the security threat posed by a revitalized Russia. “The demands on the [U.S.] Army will only grow more diverse and complicated going forward,” Hagel told the Association of the U.S. Army’s […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Timothy Ash of Standard Bank – October 15, 2014) Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, this week estimated that the crisis in Ukraine would likely cost the German economy €40bn this year, and a further €50bn in 2015 – presumably through lost exports, and a broader disruption to the German economy and weaker resulting real […]
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MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) – The return of Russian troops, who took part in summer exercises in southern Russia, to their permanent bases is part of Russia’s domestic policy and not a signal to anyone, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday. “All sorts of decisions that Russia takes, including decisions on our armed forces, are the responsibility of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 16, 2014) Russia’s national defense budget for 2015 will reach a record 3.3 trillion rubles ($81 billion), or 4.2 percent of its national GDP, the head of the State Duma’s defense committee, Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency on Thursday. The 2015 budget represents an 812 billion ruble […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Kateryna Choursina – October 13, 2014) Russian troops are pulling back from the border with Ukraine, the government in Kiev said, calling it a positive move. President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to withdraw from Ukraine’s borders on Oct. 11. About 17,600 soldiers, who were on drills since the summer in the Rostov region, are to […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Alexandr Litoy – October 2, 2014) Alexandr Litoy is a Moscow-based journalist, specialising in socio-political issues and extremism among the youth. He began his career at Novaya Gazeta, has worked with RBC Holdings and is currently a freelance journalist. The Donbas separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army with the help of volunteers from all over the world […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – COMMENT: Ben Aris in Moscow – September 30, 2014) Russia is actively preparing for a war that nobody wants and that will probably never happen. But its increasingly obvious commitment to real preparations for a potential military conflict with the West have been convincing enough to create trump cards in the diplomatic and sanctions […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – September 30, 2014) An opposition lawmaker who inquired about the reported deaths of Russian paratroopers in Ukraine has been told by the Defense Ministry that the accounts are “rumors” and that releasing information about military casualties would violate privacy laws. State Duma lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov – one of the few critics of President Vladimir Putin’s […]
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WASHINGTON, September 29 (RIA Novosti) – US President Barack Obama has excluded the possibility of military confrontation between Russia and NATO over the Ukrainian crisis in his interview to CBS Monday. “No, I don’t think there’s going to be a military confrontation between NATO and Russia, although we have worked very hard to reassure that Article Five of the NATO […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – September 8, 2014) As West’s Cold-War-era military alliance cranks its belligerence levels up to 11, NATO’s historic enemy, Russia, is rejigging its own military thinking in response. In response to the harder stance confirmed at NATO’s summit last week in Wales, Russian officials are revisiting the country’s war doctrine, mulling its nuclear […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 2, 2014) Russian politicians and pundits have expressed support for the announcement that Russia will update its military doctrine. The deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, Mikhail Popov, said today in an interview with RIA Novosti news agency that Russia will make changes to its current military doctrine before the end of 2014 to account […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 29, 2014) “Voyennoye obozreniye,” an online Moscow journal directed at the Russian military and military analysts, has published today list of seven targets Russian forces are likely to attack in the course of what it describes as “the probable future of the war for Novorossiya.” Of course, which ones the Kremlin […]
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SELIGER, Tver region. Aug 29 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that an agreement has been reached with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko about the handover of Russian airborne troops held in Ukraine. “We spoke about it with Petro Poroshenko, and he reassured me that the Russian military servicemen will be handed over to Russia just like we have […]
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BRUSSELS. Aug 28 (Interfax) – NATO’s intention to adopt “a readiness action plan” as part of its recent steps near the borders with Russia under the pretext of some threats coming from the East is unjustified and will only serve to further complicate relations between Russia and the alliance, Moscow’s Permanent Representative to NATO Alexander Grushko has said. “Certainly, we […]
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BRUSSELS, August 28 (RIA Novosti) – Thursday’s claims of a Russian military invasion of Ukraine were sparked by Kiev’s attempts to justify its military setbacks in the east and downplay the results of recent talks in Minsk, Russia’s EU envoy said. “I think that this is related to the launch of the Minsk process, which, I believe, someone did not […]
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(Business New Europe MOSCOW BLOG – bne.eu – Ben Aris – August 28, 2014) “Russia invades Ukraine” screamed a banner headline in the Huffington Post on August 27 after it was reported that 100 Russian tanks had crossed the border into Ukraine. Let’s get one thing straight at the outset. Russia did not invade Ukraine on Wednesday. An invasion is […]
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MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax) – Militiamen of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) claim that up to 7,000 Ukrainian army servicemen have been trapped in three “pockets” in Ukraine’s eastern regions. “We have managed to drive the adversary into three “pockets”. One of them is located outside of Ilovaysk, the second one near Lutuhyne, and the third one near Stepanivka […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Korolkov, special to RBTH – August 25, 2014) Currently in the headlines for its use by both sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Grad BM-21 multiple launch rocket system has a history that goes back all the way to the early 1960s, when it succeeded the legendary Katyusha rocket battery. […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Schastye, Ukraine – August 27, 2014) Irregular and regular Ukrainian forces have already captured “scores” of Russian Federation forces, a battalion commander tells bne, after Ukrainian media played videos of interviews with some captured members of Russia’s elite Pskov airborne division. Ukraine now appears to possess damning evidence of Russia’s involvement […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko, Ivan Nechepurenko – August 27, 2014) A slew of reports about Russian paratroopers slain or captured in Ukraine have reignited fears of a Russian invasion in the war-torn country, but confusion reigned supreme, indicating that the stories are above all part of the propaganda battle. The reports came ahead of a long-awaited meeting […]
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WASHINGTON, August 21 (RIA Novosti), Leandra Bernstein – The last thing Russian President Vladimir Putin would do is getting involved by the West into a military invasion of Eastern Ukraine, a senior fellow at the Foreign Police Center on the US and Europe told RIA Novosti. “I don’t think [Putin] would invade Ukraine. I think it’s the last thing he […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Tim Ash, Standard Bank – August 15, 2014) Putin speaking in Crimea, at session of Russia’s National Security Council. This is about as far as Putin gets to extending an olive branch and saying “lets talk”. Also noting that he does not want Russia to be isolated internationally. We had the Sochi summit over […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 14, 2014) Only a “thin line” separates Russia and Ukraine from going to war, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker said, arguing that Moscow has been careful in its policies to avoid tipping the scale and that Kiev should demonstrate more restraint. The head of the federal parliament’s International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, said Wednesday that the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko – August 13, 2014) Concerns voiced by Kiev and the West that Moscow’s humanitarian convoy to Ukraine’s battle-scarred east is nothing more than a Trojan Horse are – most likely – unfounded, Russian military analysts said. Pundits told The Moscow Times on Tuesday that the limited scope of a “peacekeeping” operation would be […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ilya Slastenov, Nikolai Litovkin, RBTH – August 13, 2014) Moscow’s decision to send an aid convoy to eastern Ukraine has been received with mistrust by the U.S. and a number of European countries. RBTH interviewed a number of Russian experts on how the political scenario in relations between Russia and the West will […]
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The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release August 06, 2014 Remarks by the President at Press Conference After U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit [excerpt re Russia] Q Thank you, Mr. President. Russia said today that it is going to ban food and agricultural product imports. That was about $1.3 billion last year. At the same time, Defense Secretary […]
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(Interfax – August 5, 2014) The concerns voiced by US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki about the Russian military exercise at the Ashuluk range in Astrakhan Region are unfounded, a Russian Defence Ministry official spokesman told journalists on Tuesday [5 August]. “People at the Russian Defence Ministry have relished the latest pronouncements by the official spokesperson for the US foreign […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – August 1, 2014) The West’s latest round of sanctions on Russia will not have much immediate impact on the county’s defense industry, but they do have the potential to strike a blow to Russia’s 23 trillion ruble ($646 billion) military modernization drive, analysts say. The European Union on Thursday formally banned the […]
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MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Defense Ministry has labeled Ukraine’s claim that two Su-25 attack aircraft were shot down in eastern Ukraine from Russia as “hogwash.” On Wednesday, independence forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region said they downed two Su-25s. Later in the day, a spokesman from Ukraine’s National Security information center, Andriy Lysenko, said during a […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Mikhail Butov, special to RBTH – July 23, 2014) The author is a writer and Russian Booker Prize winner. The current conflict in Ukraine is raising sensitive ethical questions, forcing us to consider the justifications and meaning of using military force, and whether it should be allowed at all. RBTH looks at what […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Nikolai Litovkin, RBTH – July 23, 2014) The business newspaper Kommersant has reported the findings of a special working group of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), which has quantified the costs of ceased collaboration with Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises. Russia will need to spend $938 million (33 billion rubles) to mitigate the negative […]
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[featured image is file photo] Subject: FW: new post on Russian guilt Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 From: Anders Aslund <AAslund@PIIE.COM> David: Another version of the same evidence. Best, Anders From: paul roderick gregory [pgregory@stanford.edu] Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2014 3:27 PM To: Anders Aslund; Gregory Paul Subject: new post on Russian guilt http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2014/07/19/what-more-smoking-guns-are-needed-for-mh17-the-worlds-first-sam-terrorism/ Forbes.com July 19, 2014 Here Are […]
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MOSCOW, July 18 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Defense Ministry says it had intercepted the activity of a Ukrainian radar system on the day the Malaysian plane went down in eastern Ukraine, the ministry’s press service said Friday. “Throughout the day on July 17, Russian means of radar surveillance intercepted the operation of the Buk-M1 battery’s Kupol radar station located […]
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(Interfax – July 18, 2014) The route and crash site of yesterday’s downed Malaysian Boeing 777 jet falls within the zone targeted by two Ukrainian squadrons operating a S-200 long-range air defense system and three squadrons operating a Buk-M1 medium-range air defense system, a spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry told Interfax-AVN on Friday. Throughout July 17, Russian aviation systems […]
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[“World leaders demand answers after airliner downed over Ukraine with 298 dead” – Reuters – Anton Zverev – July 18, 2014] Reuters covers the shoot-down of the Malaysian civilian jumbo jet in eastern Ukraine and its aftermath, including calls for an international investigation. World leaders demanded an international investigation into the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner with 298 people … over eastern […]
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