Tag: Russia

  • Putin is popular, but his voters don’t necessarily agree on much

    There is little excitement about the result of today’s presidential election in Russia, but that does not mean that there is nothing exciting about it. Sam Greene has a sharp analysis on his blog, Moscow-on-Thames: Vladimir Putin will win today’s elections because he is genuinely popular. We should be clear about that. But we should…

  • Sailor fell overboard from Russian corvette in Baltic Sea

    On Tuesday 13 March a crew member fell overboard from the Russian corvette Soobrazitelny in the Baltic Sea. Eight ships took part in the search-and-rescue operation, but the sailor was not found. That reports korabel.ru. The incident occurred just after midnight, and at 21:00 the search was canceled. With the present water temperatures around 0…

  • Podcast recommendation: WOTR – A big debate about a little nuke

    There is a great discussion about Russia and nuclear weapons in this episode of the War on the Rocks podcast. The panel is terrific. Olga Oliker is brilliant, Frank Miller is wrong about most things concerning Russia but argues his case very well, and Vipin Narang has deep technical insights. Ryan and Usha do a…

  • Russia’s new nuclear weapons are about missile defense

    Vladimir Putin spent a surprising amount of time in his March 1st speech talking about nuclear weapons. Pavel K. Baev has some interesting considerations in Brookings about the possible motivations for this: Russia’s economic weakness is so profound that Russia cannot possibly engage in anything resembling a real arms race with the United States and…

  • The ‘Gerasimov Doctrine’ doesn’t exist

    In the West it is widely believed that Russia follows a specific military doctrine that the current chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov has invented. This alleged Gerasimov Doctrine prescribes a kind of hybrid warfare to undermine the societal structures of the adversary through means of disinformation, deception, subversion, intelligent use of limited force,…

  • Kofman’s look at Putin’s new weapon announcements (updated)

    Last week, Vladimir Putin held a speech in which he announced some spectacular new weapons including supersonic missiles and an intercontinental ballistic missile with nuclear propulsion to give it unlimited range. Few people are as qualified to comment on the weapon announcements as Michael Kofman. He has just released part 1 in a two-part series…

  • In 2011, a Russian submarine was close to nuclear disaster in drydock

    Kyle Mizokami for Popular Mechanics: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin has admitted that a December 2011 incident involving a nuclear missile submarine almost became one of the worst nuclear weapons disasters ever recorded. The Ekaterinburg, a ballistic missile submarine, caught fire in drydock, threatening its load of liquid-fueled nuclear missiles. If the missiles had…

  • U.S. Nuclear Posture Review misses the point on Russia

    The Pentagon published its Nuclear Posture Review for 2018 (NPR) earlier in February. It dramatically changes some assumptions about nuclear weapons that were laid out in the previous NPR from 2010. The new NPR concludes that there has been a deterioration in international relations with a return to great power competition and a more complex…

  • Things to look for in near future for Russian Baltic Fleet: Return of AGI and naval exercise

    Intelligence ship Fyodor Golovin (AGI) of the Russian Baltic Fleet has been relieved off Syria and is now returning to the Baltic Sea. That reported Russian military news site flot.com on Tuesday. Fyodor Golovin was replaced on duty by the intelligence ship Ekvator of the Black Sea Fleet. Russia has had a shortage of intelligence…

  • Russia has lost its economic leverage over Ukraine

    Nicu Popescu has written a great article for Carnegie Moscow Center about the future relationship between Russia and Ukraine. “Those in Moscow who believe that all is not lost for Russia in Ukraine, citing the example of Georgia, which is gradually normalizing relations with Russia despite the 2008 war, are being overly optimistic. While the…

  • Russia forbids soldiers to use social media

    New guidelines from the Russian Ministry of Defense aim to limit the access of soldiers to the internet. So far these guidelines are only recommendations, but they will be implemented in legislation soon. That reports Izvestia. Some of the recommendations are very sensible: Install software updates, don’t install suspicious apps, and use complex and unique…

  • The idea that NATO wants to attack Russia is very common

    In Russian security discussions there is a very different narrative about world events than in the West. Few people realize the extend to which the West is portrayed as a fascist coalition that wants to undermine Russia and uses clandestine conspiracies to achieve its goals. This is not just a propaganda byline but a fairly…