Has Moscow Come to Terms with Iran?
In strictly geographic terms, Iran is not Russia’s immediate neighbor: Azerbaijan on the western side of the Caspian Sea, and Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan on the eastern side form wide buffer…
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Baev
258 posts
Medvedev and the Military: Reshuffling as a Preamble for Reform?
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev insists that the somewhat softer style of his foreign and security policy makes no difference in their substance. Key policy guidelines continue to support the goals…
Vae Victors: The Russian Army Pays for the Lessons of the Georgian War
The dust of the five-day August war between Russia and Georgia was partly settled by the end of the year – and was partly blown away by the hurricane winds…
Competing Designs for Caspian Energy Highways: Russia and the EU Face Reality Checks
The profound economic disaster that began unfolding in the summer of 2008 has inevitably distorted the energy-related political perspectives developed in the United States, the European Union, and Russia during an…
Staying the Arctic Course: An Offer for Cooperation That Russia Cannot Refuse
Two years after the sensational expedition that planted the Russian flag on the North Pole, and a year after the peak in world oil prices, international attention to Arctic geopolitics…
Chairing the G8: Russian Energy and Great Power Aspirations
At the start of 2005, Russia hit a low in its international relations. Awkward interference in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine resulted in serious tensions with the European Union. The…
Russia’s Counterrevolutionary Offensive in Central Asia
Counterterrorism has never been a convincing Russian strategy for Central Asia. At the start of Vladimir Putin’s presidency, attempts to impress upon the leaders of the five Central Asian states that only…
Has Russia Achieved a Victory in Its War Against Terror?
Russia launched its own war against terror in September 1999 when the country, shocked by twin bomb attacks in Moscow, made a contract with newly appointed prime minister Vladimir Putin.…
The Kosovo Precedent in Russia’s Georgia Policy
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the argument that U.S. and European recognition of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence will create a significant international precedent so many times that no…
Putin’s European Project: Derailed or Set Back in Reformatting?
The November 25, 2004 Russia-EU summit, dominated by disagreement over elections in Ukraine, marked a record low point in Russia’s relations with Europe. Putin probably regretted his decision to postpone this…