Ageing railways, poor-quality roads and an inadequate response by the authorities to calls for basic services are the weak underbelly of the Russian infrastructure system.Download the articleThe Russian language has a specific word to describe the conditions of roads during particularly adverse weather. Rasputitsa usually describes heavy snow or mud, which makes traversing these roads almost impossible. That such a word exists, to illustrate the difficulties in getting around this vast country, highlights the continued importance of basic infrastructure, such as roads and railways, in Russian thinking.Russia remains highly reliant on roads and railways to transport large volumes of people …read more Source: Royal United Services Institute...
With the Baltic states on-track to become independent from centralised Russian control over their power networks, the Kremlin has demonstrated an alarming potential to disconnect them from its power grid before they are ready to join the continental European network.Download the article On 22 May 2019, Russia disconnected all power lines linking Kaliningrad with Lithuania and operated its electricity grid autonomously for 72 hours. This seemingly unimportant and therefore underreported episode shows that Moscow is now capable of disconnecting Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from its Integrated Power System/Unified Power System (IPS/UPS) before they are prepared to disconnect themselves in 2025. …read more Source: Royal United Services Institute...
NATO’s primary military response to the Russian annexation of Crimea was to reinforce its long standing Baltic Air Policing operations. Airpower is a domain in which NATO can credibly challenge Russian dominance in the region and provide ‘hard’ deterrence against military intimidation. …read more Source: Royal United...
