The Navalny Verdict: What It Means for Russia
(Six Views) Paul Goode: Navalny is not Khodorkovsky. For everyone reading or making comments about today’s verdict like “this is worrisome," you are a decade late to the game. The…
Russian-Azerbaijani Military Cooperation: A New or Old Trick?
Since June, there has been a dramatic increase in media coverage on the situation around the Karabakh conflict. This has been caused primarily by information about the beginning of fulfillment…
Voting on the UN Resolution for Georgia’s Territorial Integrity
Last month (June 13), the UN General Assembly adopted a Georgia-initiated resolution about the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Similar to the previous five resolutions, this one acknowledges the…
Kazan’s Massive Sports Universiade: Russia’s Rehearsal
"Thirty new sport complexes, a sports village, two metro stations, a shuttle line, airport and railway terminals, high-speed tram, eleven transport junctions … … brown scars on the formerly green…
Alternative Designs for the New Russian Destroyer
Just a quick note today. My friend and colleague Ilya Kramnik plots out four alternative designs for the new Russian destroyer currently in the works. 1) 7500-9000 tons, ~160 meters long, gas…
Arts and Resistance
The Germans have finally lumped Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus into one group – not only geographically – but politically too. These countries share not only oppressive regimes, but also a…
Russian MOD Activity Plan for 2013-2020 Published
The Russian Ministry of Defense recently published its activity plan for the rest of the decade. Everyone who can read Russian should go look at the handy summary in table form. There’s a lot…
German Policies toward Russia have to be Inventive
With Moscow closing one policy pathway after another—no participation in the European Neighborhood Program, no common approach to managing the Ukrainian energy system, no dialogue on human rights, no joint…
Russia Fatigue in Berlin? Not Any More
Two hundred-fifty people attending a think-tank event in Berlin in the middle of the week is undeniably a success. Indeed, the organizers of "Russia and Germany in 2030: Scenarios for…
Олимпиада 2014 и права коренных жителей Сочи
Запланированная в Сочи (Краснодарский край России) зимняя Олимпиада 2014 г. привлекает все большее внимание к меньшинствам края. После серьезных проволочек исторического характера российские власти достигли пусть незначительного, но все равно…
Russian Military Shipbuilding: An Update (Part 1)
The cover article of the brand new issue of Moscow Defense Brief (subscription required) from the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, examines developments in Russian military shipbuilding in 2012, written by…
In Georgia, the Sentencing Begins (and it’s relatively mild)
Amid sensational accounts of hidden weapons caches and newly uncovered torture videos comes a relatively muted piece of news from Georgia – the June 14th conviction of 16 former government…