(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 3, 2013) The physical fitness of Russia’s soldiers remains inadequate due to the poor state of recruits and shoddy training, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday. The Defense Ministry has tried recently to improve physical training in the Russian army and navy, with more time allocated to physical exercise, Shoigu said at a […]
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(Interfax – St. Petersburg, May 30, 2013) UAV operators are a legitimate enemy target in wartime, Russian Constitutional Court Chairman Valeriy Zorkin believes. “A drone operator should have no illusions about his own security and impunity while controlling a UAV from a suburb of the US capital via satellite. He is a legitimate enemy target according to the legal views […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – May 29, 2013) Ahead of NATO’s planned withdrawal from Afghanistan next year, leaders of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization have pledged to pool their resources to counter any potential deterioration of the security situation in the region. In an effort to demonstrate the importance of the military alliance, President Vladimir Putin […]
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(Interfax – May 23, 2013) Russia is not planning to return to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Deputy Defence Minister Anatoliy Antonov has said, as quoted by the Russian Interfax news agency on 23 May. “Today, Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu said clearly that this mechanism, the CFE, which we often argue about in Russia and NATO, […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, May 22, 2013) Radical Islam has taken roots in 55 Russian regions, former Interior Minister and president of the Club of Russian Military Commanders Army Gen Anatoliy Kulikov said at a scientific conference “Islamism and Russia’s national security” today. “Radical political Islam, or Islamism, which has declared jihad on our country, is the most real threat to […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 22, 2013) Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on the country’s defense industry on Wednesday to provide the military with state-of-the-art weapons superior to their Western analogs. “It is essential to offer weapons which are superior to our world counterparts, and pay special attention to strengthening cooperation, primarily with our partners in the Collective […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor – Eurasia Daily Monitor – Volume 10, Issue 96 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Roger McDermott – May 21, 2013) Six months after his appointment as Russia’s defense minister, Army-General Sergei Shoigu has initiated a number of policy reversals in key areas of his predecessor’s Armed Forces reform. Some of these changes were small measures, however […]
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(Interfax – May 17, 2013) Corruption in Russia is a threat to national security, and cooperation with international organizations must be stepped up to fight it, Russian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Chayka said on 17 May. He was speaking at a meeting with a delegation from the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) in Moscow, as reported by Russian […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – April 30, 2013) Russia is beefing up its western border’s defence with plans for a new airbase in Belarus and sales to the government there of one of its most sophisticated surface-to-air missile systems. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced April 23 a new deal with Minsk that will see Russia deploy fighter jets […]
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(Interfax – April 25, 2013) The Russian Union of Afghan War Veterans that unites many generals and officers who took part in the pullout of the Soviet limited contingent from Afghanistan are ready to respond to requests from NATO colleagues and share their materials, Union leader Frants Klintsevich told Interfax-AVN on Thursday. “I have learned about the NATO request from […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Inna Soboleva, RBTH – April 18, 2013) Russian researchers warn that a new world war might break out in the next 10 years. They proceed from the theory of economic cycles and their impact on the level of military aggression in the world. The origin of the next world war’s breakout is expected […]
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(RIA Novosti, MOSCOW, April 17, 2013) The number of corruption related crimes recorded in Russia rose by almost 25 percent in 2012, according to a report by the Prosecutor General’s Office submitted to parliament on Wednesday. A total of 49,513 such crimes were registered last year, compared to 40,407 in 2011, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said. Over 13,500 individuals […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov – April 12, 2013) Russia’s building a system to neutralize space weapons as it prepares to send a man to Mars and build a permanent moon base, President Vladimir Putin and members of his government said. Russia will have the technical means by 2030 to counteract threats from space by other countries, Deputy Prime […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Litovkin, RBTH – April 4, 2013) A recently released report by International Institute for Strategic Studies has noted that Russia’s defense spending increased in 2012. Analyst Viktor Litovkin argues that Russia’s defense spending is nowhere close to the numbers put up by Western nations. The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. April 3 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin favors broader use of export loans and new forms of settlements in broadening military-technical cooperation with foreign states. “In order to strengthen (military-technical) cooperation with key partners, we should pay special attention to long-term cooperation programs and broaden the use of state export loans,” Putin said at a meeting of the […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 2, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-spring-draft.html) Moscow is now conducting its spring draft of young men for the uniformed services, one that is highlighting class and ethnic divides among the population of the Russian Federation, a greater willingness on the part of both sides of these divides to speak out, and efforts by […]
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MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) Six years after announcing a unilateral moratorium on the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), the Russian Defense Ministry has reaffirmed that the original document has no prospects in the future. “The CFE treaty was signed when two opposing military blocs NATO and the Warsaw Pact still existed,” head of […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, March 25, 2013) Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu and US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel have held a telephone conversation on issues of global and regional security, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoliy Antonov has told journalists on Monday (25 March). “Literally an hour ago, at the initiative of the Russian side, a telephone conversation took place between […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – March 21, 2013) Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the military should finally rid itself of “non-relevant functions,” during a high-level meeting on Wednesday. Despite the bravado tone of speeches dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the government’s defense industry commission, Shoigu openly disagreed with senior officials during his speech, which followed other […]
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MOSCOW. March 21 (Interfax) – The BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will not form a military alliance and will center its efforts on tackling economic and social issues, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “I would like to reiterate once again that BRICS is not a bloc directed against third states. This principle was firmly […]
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MOSCOW, March 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russia needs to determine exactly who its enemies are and develop its Armed Forces accordingly, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday. “We really need to understand what our strategic threats are, clearly define who our adversary is, what kind of adversary, and configure our Armed Forces and military-technical systems to counter those […]
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(Interfax – March 20, 2013) The international conference on security issues in Europe, the Russian Defense Ministry plans to hold in Moscow on March 23-24, is to bring closer ties of European countries on the issue, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters on Wednesday. “A lot has been done in the recent years to ensure security in Europe […]
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BRUSSELS. March 19 (Interfax) – Russian officials said on Monday at a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council that Russia intended to hold an international conference on military and political aspects of European security in Moscow on May 23-24, Sergei Koshelev, director of the Russian Defense Ministry’s department for international military cooperation, said. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has proposed holding […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nicholas von Twickel – March 19, 2013) Washington’s decision to scrap the last phase of the planned NATO missile shield for Europe elicited expectations that U.S.-Russian relations might improve by removing a major stumbling block that had irked Moscow. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Friday that the U.S. would not carry out Phase 4 of […]
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MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the country’s military-industrial complex, called on Friday for harsher punishments for corrupt officials who “betray the motherland” by siphoning funds from defense projects. “These crimes must be punished in the harshest possible manner,” Rogozin told a meeting of officials from the Russian Federal Service for Defense […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – March 14, 2013) “With the full support of a feckless policy elite and an uncritical media establishment, Washington is slipping, if not plunging, into a new Cold War with Moscow.” Strong words from Professor Stephen Cohen in a January article published in The Nation, who is a lonely voice […]
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MOSCOW, March 13 (RIA Novosti) More than 244,000 draft-age men avoided conscription into Russia’s Armed Forces last year, the General Staff reported on Wednesday. Some 8,794 Russian men received their draft card but did not show up at the recruiment office as required – a criminal offence carrying a prison term of up to two years under Russian law, […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 46 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Roger McDermott – March 12, 2013) Moscow’s plans to reform and modernize its conventional Armed Forces have become encased in experiment, indecision, bureaucracy and secrecy. Since Army-General Sergei Shoigu was appointed as the defense minister in November 2012, the “reform” has officially stayed “on course,” while numerous […]
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NOVOSIBIRSK, March 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he plans to control implementation of a plan to rearm the armed forces that he said was a “historic chance” for Russia. “We have held a series of meetings on providing the army and navy with new armament systems,” Putin said at a meeting on the prospects of […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 1, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-five-new-statistics.html) Five new statistics about Russia this past week one about Muslims in the army, a second about the state of its roads, a third about the number of illegal migrants in the country, a fourth about Russian attitudes toward religious instruction in the schools, and a […]
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(Governent.ru – February 26, 2013) Correspondent (via interpreter): Mr Prime Minister, thank you very much for finding time for Globo in your schedule. In your recent article in the influential Financial Times, you wrote that Russia should look to the East, to the Asia-Pacific Region. How, looking East, did you wind up in Brazil? Did you follow Columbus who set […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Viktor Litovkin, special to RBTH – February 22, 2013) The replacement of Anatoly Serdukov by Sergei Shoigu has not meant a retreat from the modernization of the Russian armed forces. On the eve of Feb. 23, Defender of the Fatherland Day, Russian Defense Minister General Sergei Shoigu alerted the Ivanovo Airborne Division, based […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – February 19, 2013) The meteor that struck outside Chelyabinsk on Friday with such suddenness and explosive force has prompted a question among some spooked observers: If Russian defense officials were unable to track an object 17 meters in diameter rocketing down to earth, how could they detect a much smaller but equally […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – February 8, 2013) Japan scrambled four fighter jets to intercept two Russian fighters it said invaded Japanese airspace near Russia’s Kuril Islands for about 11 seconds on Thursday, as Japan celebrated a national day of commemoration calling for the disputed archipelago seized in World War II to return to the Japanese. Russia’s […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 21 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Roger McDermott – February 5, 2013) Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is considering signing into law a new “defense plan,” setting out in a comprehensive document the long-term threat assessment and strategic environment facing Russia over the next few decades. It will mark an effort on a grand […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax) – Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ranks first on the Cabinet members popularity chart (the prime minister and deputy prime ministers excluded), with 90% of respondents polled recently giving him highest marks, the Public Opinion Foundation pollster (FOM) has announced. Sixty-eight percent of respondents polled on January 26 and 27 highly appraised his work since he took […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 29, 2013) The Defense Ministry’s opacity makes it difficult to determine whether anti-corruption reforms are being carried out, Transparency International said in a report released on Tuesday in which it gave Russia a “D-” grade on an A to F corruption index. The rating put Russia on par with Turkey, Belarus, and China, and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 29, 2013) The net appears to be closing on former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov after military investigators opened an investigation into extravagant improvements at a dacha belonging to his brother-in-law, a news report said Monday. Serdyukov resigned in disgrace last month amid allegations that several of his close associates had enriched themselves via the […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) – Russia is implementing a program of modernizing its Armed Forces which it has not done for almost a quarter of a century, Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said in commenting on an interview with former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to Der Spiegel. “Why play along with the West and repeat the fundamentally erroneous claims […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, Combined report – January 21, 2013) The biggest anti-corruption campaign in the Defense Ministry in years has yielded its first arrest, at the agency’s very top. The head of the ministry’s Facilities Department has been placed behind bars for two months. New arrests have been made as part of the high-profile […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer and Ilya Arkhipov – January 18, 2013) Russian investigators are said to be near a decision on whether to charge the country’s ex-defense minister amid the biggest anti-graft drive of President Vladimir Putin’s 12 years in power, according to two officials. Anatoly Serdyukov has been implicated by people questioned in an embezzlement inquiry, said […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 7 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Robert McDermott – January 15, 2013) Russia’s new defense minister, Army-General Sergei Shoigu, under the guise of pursuing “nuanced changes” to the Armed Forces’ reform managed by his predecessor Anatoly Serdyukov, is reportedly considering systemic revisions to the entire process. These range from revising the reformed military […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 14, 2013) Former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who at an inquiry Friday into allegedly illicit property sales gave investigators “a few sheets of paper with explanations” then refused further questions, faces being considered a suspect, the Investigative Committee said. “If the former defense minister believes he is free of any guilt with regard to […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 2 – Roger McDermott – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – January 8, 2013) As the Russian political-military leadership faces a new year filled with many of the same issues that lay unresolved at the start of 2012, it is likely that the twists and turns of the “reform” associated with former Defense Minister Anatoly […]
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(International Relations and Security Network (ISN) – Dmitry Gorenburg – December 20, 2012) Efforts to reorganize and modernize the Russian military have generated an increased demand for manpower and modern equipment. The country’s widening demographic crisis and procurement challenges, however, threaten to seriously undermine these efforts, or so argues Dmitry Gorenburg. Over the last four years, the Russian government has […]
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Russia Beyond the Headlines sets out its list of top news stories for 2012: 1. The presidential election … 2. Medvedev’s Cabinet … 3. United Russia’s new leader … Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev swapped jobs and not only in public office … 4. Strident new laws … 5. Protest actions …
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(Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 9, Issue 223 – Pavel Felgenhauer – Dec. 6, 2012) A month ago on November 6, President Vladimir Putin sacked Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, replacing him with Sergei Shoigu, a former long-time emergency situations minister (MChS), who was only last May appointed governor of the Moscow region. Russia’s top general – the first […]
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[Purge and prejudice: What will the fate of military reform tell us about the anti-corruption campaign? – Mark Galeotti – Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Dec. 3, 2012 – Mark Galeotti (Twitter: @markgaleotti) is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University’s SCPS Center for Global Affairs. His blog, “In Moscow’s Shadows,” can be read at http://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com – full article […]
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Far, far more serious than the shake-up’s implications for Russia’s military doctrine and modernization — and they are serious, because it is unlikely that Shoigu will succeed by retaining Soviet-era management practices — are its implications for the stability of the Putin regime and its reliance on clans, protection, corruption, and intimidation. The Serdyukov scandal is a hint that Putin is not in control, and that his political system has become vulnerable to fratricide.
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[Russia may change its image in bid to find more allies – Russia Today – Dec. 3, 2012 – http://rt.com/politics/russia-change-bid-find-128/] Russia Today writes on Russian foreign policy ambitions following an assembly of Russia’s Council for Foreign and Defence Policy. In part, Russia Today cited attendees as highlighting military spending, including conventional forces: Conference members also observed that in modern times […]
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