: :inin Kyiv (EET)

Section: The Jamestown Foundation (USA)

      Russian Expert Community Introduces New Study on Electronic Warfare
      Apr11

      Russian Expert Community Introduces New Study on Electronic Warfare

      In August 2015, the Russian official news agency TASS quoted United States Army Europe’s (USAREUR) commander, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, speaking on, among other topics, the growing robustness of Russian electronic warfare (EW) capabilities (TASS, August 19, 2015). What the US general said undoubtedly provided the Russians with...

      Newly-Formed National Guard Cannot Dispel Putin’s Multiple Insecurities
      Apr11

      Newly-Formed National Guard Cannot Dispel Putin’s Multiple Insecurities

      The recent release of the “Panama Papers,” which revealed notorious cases of hidden money flows tied to the global elite, continues to cause a political stir across the world. But in Russia, this scandal was eclipsed by President Vladimir Putin’s sudden reshuffling of the law enforcement structures. The main element of this bureaucratic...

      Number of Georgian Citizens Who Leave to Join Islamic State Has Abruptly Dropped
      Apr08

      Number of Georgian Citizens Who Leave to Join Islamic State Has Abruptly Dropped

      On March 29, the deputy head of the Georgian State Security Service, Levan Izoria, briefed a joint session of three parliamentary committees: defense and security, human rights and legal affairs (Civil Georgia, March 29). Normally, the State Security Service’s annual report to the parliament primarily assesses risks connected to Russian...

      Gas-Rich Turkmenistan Looks to Export Diversification
      Apr08

      Gas-Rich Turkmenistan Looks to Export Diversification

      In January 2016, the Russian media reported that Russia’s gas giant, Gazprom, had discontinued all purchases of natural gas from Turkmenistan and was not planning to resume imports any time soon. This information was later confirmed in a company statement released in mid-March, containing some revelatory details about what had led to a...

      Belarus Goes Against the Tide
      Apr08

      Belarus Goes Against the Tide

      In the past week, two notable events sparked heated debate in the Belarusian and Russian press: the dispensation to Belarus of a Russian $2 billion loan and a visit to Minsk by Michael Carpenter, the United States’ Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. Regarding the loan, multiple analysts marveled at...

      Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone: A Long Gestation (Part Two)
      Apr07

      Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone: A Long Gestation (Part Two)

      *To read Part One, please click here. Western nuclear powers have expressed objections regarding several provisions of the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (CANWFZ) Treaty (US State Department, Treaties Data Base Home, CANWFZ Treaty, accessed April 5). The treaty, signed by Central Asia’s five countries, is currently in force; but the...

      Untangling Plans for Russia’s Military Force Structure
      Apr06

      Untangling Plans for Russia’s Military Force Structure

      Russia’s Ground Forces are moving away from the brigade-based structure of the “New Look” reforms to form divisions in the western strategic direction. This involves the formation of three divisions in western Russia, with two being constituted in the Western Military District (MD) and one in the Southern MD. This is mainly cast as a...

      Nuclear Security and Arms Control Are Non-Issues for Russia
      Apr04

      Nuclear Security and Arms Control Are Non-Issues for Russia

      Russia’s absence from the nuclear summit in Washington, DC, last week was entirely predictable and yet baffling. Moscow announced its non-participation last November, and Secretary of State John Kerry was unable, in recent lengthy talks, to persuade President Vladimir Putin to make a trip to the United States’ capital (Newsru.com,...

      Latvia Strives to Modernize Its Command and Control
      Apr04

      Latvia Strives to Modernize Its Command and Control

      In order to boost the role of the National Guard within the national defense system and to continue to develop its structures, Latvia’s Defense Minister Raimonds Bergmanis recently ordered the commander of the National Armed Forces, Raimonds Graube, to transform the current National Guard regional formations into National Guard Infantry...

      South and North Ossetians Clash over Georgian Ensemble’s Concert in Vladikavkaz
      Apr04

      South and North Ossetians Clash over Georgian Ensemble’s Concert in Vladikavkaz

      A concert by the Rustavi state academic Georgian folk song and dance ensemble in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, unexpectedly spiraled into a scandal. When news of Rustavi’s arrival in Vladikavkaz first emerged, South Ossetian activists started a campaign against the Georgian dance group’s concert. South Ossetians appealed...