Policy Memos | Аналитика 136

Dagestan and Chechnya: Russia’s Self-Defeating Wars

In the Russian North Caucasus history repeats itself again and again, always as tragedy. Russia's leaders seem incapable of grasping the subtle complexities of politics in Dagestan and Chechnya, despite…

Security Implications of the Russian Identity Crisis

Western policymakers and their scholarly advisers seem to focus primarily on the oligarchical interests of the Russian elite rather than on long-range societal processes. This memo is an attempt to…

Access, Influence and Policy Change: The Multiple Roles of NGOs in Post-Soviet States

July 23, 2012

The US government, American foundations, and international agencies have devoted significant sums over the past decade to promoting the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia and other former Soviet…

The Federation Council and Representation of Regional Interests

The Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament (also referred to as the "senate,") plays a number of different roles. It is an instrument for reconciling the interests…

Changing Rules for Russian Roulette? Rethinking the Soldier, State and Society in Russia

The Russian military's attempt to shape the Kosovo peace settlement through its move into Pristina should not have come as such a shock to Western diplomats. It is only the…

How NATO’s War in Yugoslavia is Making Foreign Policy in Moscow

It is reasonable to expect that NATO's war against Yugoslavia would produce obvious effects on Russian foreign policy. NATO's actions against Belgrade should have heightened Moscow's suspicion of the West–NATO…

Methods of Central Control Over Russia’s Provinces, and Prospects for the Future

The Russian state is highly fragmented, lacking a unified legal or economic space. Nevertheless, fragmentation need not signal disintegration–officials of Russia's central government have proven resourceful at using the leverage…

The Russian Military Outside Politics: a Historical Perspective

Pavel Grachev, the disgraced and widely despised former Russian defense minister, was fond of asserting that the Russian army is "outside politics." Many Russian and Western observers dismissed Grachev's claim…

The Coming Unemployment Crisis in Russia

There can be little doubt that open unemployment in the Russian Federation is going to rise dramatically over the next few years. Currently, approximately 10% of the Russian population is…

Why Military Dissatisfaction Is Not a Threat to the Russian State

It is a well known fact that the Russian military today is in terrible shape. Funding shortfalls are so severe that basic needs go unmet. Neither officers nor troops get…

The US Second Line of Defense: Preventing Nuclear Smuggling Across Russia’s Borders

Preventing the theft of weapons-usable highly enriched uranium and plutonium in Russia is one of the central security concerns facing the US today. The dissolution of the highly centralized USSR…

Main Problems for Civilian Control of Military Budgets in Russia

To some extent, one can say that in Russia now there is no control over military expenditures, neither by civilians nor the military. For five years the government has followed…

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Policy Memos | Аналитика