Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
How Syria is becoming a test bed for high-tech weapons of electronic warfare
Author providedThe relationship between Russia and the West is becoming increasingly dangerous with potential flashpoints developing in both eastern Europe and Syria. After repeated incursions into Turkish airspace by Russian warplanes on bombing raids over Syria, NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg warned Moscow that it stands ready...
Is Vladimir Putin Trying to Teach the West a Lesson in Syria?
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Last week, after Russian planes bombed antigovernment forces near the Syrian town of Homs, a senior American official complained to me: “What Russia is doing in Syria is not an effort to fight the Islamic State; it is not old-fashioned realpolitik. It is not even a cynical attempt to make us forget about Ukraine. Putin simply...
Armament and Sanctions: Hard Power Versus Soft Power
The options on arming Ukraine and on sanctions against Russia, and how they relate to the options on NATO membership must also be given ample consideration in this situation, as well as all of the leftover in-between options experts have to offer. The necessity of choice is certainly important considering the amount of time that has lapsed since...
Russia May Hide Official Mansions From Public View
Plan reportedly drafted by FSB security agency, whose chiefs were recently implicated in massive corruption. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
The Warrior President: Putin’s New Folly
Vladimir Putin’s bombing campaign in Syria is a direct consequence of his failure in Ukraine. It is too early to assess whether Russia’s airstrikes will save the Assad regime, but they have given a new lease of life to the band of commentators whose fulminations pass for political discussion on Russian television. With the winding...
Vladimir of Taurus: What Putin thinks of Europe and the US
The first part of this series explained the personal and domestic political motivations behind his Syria strategy. Here the author explains how Putin and his compatriots view the world, and their scant regard for Anglosphere views on power. [youtube:q13yzl6k6w0] To speak of Russia’s international isolation is an exaggeration, but Putin is...
Presidents, the Pope and Putin: a Heady Mix at the 70th UNGA
The UN General Assembly’s annual meeting last month saw frosty and brief exchanges between the Russian and US Presidents, movement on the Sustainable Development goals, and encouraging talks on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for Iran. But Vladimir Putin sucked the oxygen out of the meeting, with his announcement about increased...
Putin in Syria: ‘Vladimir of Taurus’ baffles his foes
This is the first in a three-part series on Putin’s Syria gambit and how it furthers his ambitions at home and abroad. Eighteen months ago Russian President Vladimir Putin’s conquest of Crimea earned him the appellation among sycophants of Putin Tavrichesky or ‘the Tauridian Putin’, Taurus being an ancient Greek name for...
Belarus: The Election Is Around the Corner
On September 28, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka made a speech at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. His remarks contained sharp criticism of the United States’ policy of forceful democracy promotion across the world as well as of arbitrary and self-centered unilateralism that became possible after the US-Soviet strategic...
Minsk Breaks Silence on Russian Airbase Issue
As the presidential campaign in Belarus nears its end, the initially marginal issue of a prospective Russian airbase on Belarusian territory has grown ever louder (see EDM, September 23). On October 4, members of the Belarusian opposition held an unsanctioned rally, in the center of Minsk, against foreign military bases (BelaPAN, October 4). The...
