Section: The Jamestown Foundation (USA)
Russia Reinforces Crimea as Military Conceals Underlying Conventional Weakness
Russia’s recent “snap inspection” military exercises in Western and Southern Military Districts (see EDM, March 19) and the defense ministry’s plans to reinforce conventional deployments in Crimea (see EDM, March 27) generate an impression of revived Russian military power. However, Russia’s relatively careful and low-scale use...
Russian and Uzbek Soldiers Reportedly Now in Turkmenistan to Counter Afghan Threat
In a measure of just how frightened Ashgabat is of the possibility that Afghan radical forces will invade Turkmenistan, it has reportedly allowed Russian and now Uzbekistani military personnel to provide help in fortifying its border and has appealed to the United States for military assistance as well. All this is a major departure from...
Are Georgian-Ukrainian Bilateral Relations Deteriorating?
On March 26, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili declared that he was postponing his state visit to Ukraine because he was too busy dealing with Georgia’s domestic affairs. Garibashvili took pains to emphasize that the postponement of his visit was not due to his unhappiness at the Ukrainian leadership’s decision to appoint...
Common Currency for the Eurasian Economic Union: Testing the Ground?
On March 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin, while on a visit to Astana, Kazakhstan, said that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan—the three main founding members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), and formerly Eurasian Customs Union—should consider creating a monetary union. As Putin argued, “working shoulder to shoulder, it would be easier for...
Why Is Russia Deploying Nuclear Weapons to Crimea?
Recently, there has been an uptick in Russian efforts to defend the placement of nuclear-capable weapons, if not actual nuclear weapons, on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed one year ago. Notably, TU-22M3 long-range bombers, which would be able to carry and deliver such weapons, have now been deployed to Crimea....
Central Asians Fighting in Ukraine May Lead to Tensions With Russia
On March 17, the Russian and Kyrgyzstani services of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) published a long interview with a citizen of Kyrgyzstan identified as Manas (not his real name), who said he had fought alongside the Moscow-backed pro-Russia separatists in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. A retired officer and former graduate of...
The Kremlin’s Game of Threats
Last week (March 19), speaking at an annual conference of the Union of Russian Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP)—Russia’s main business lobbying group—President Vladimir Putin promoted a previously announced financial amnesty. Putin implied that Russia’s super-rich must repatriate their capital back from abroad and out of...
Armenia Poised to Make Pivotal Decision About Further Cooperation With European Union
European Union officials hope that among the outcomes of the upcoming May 2015 Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit in Riga will be a new and more flexible cooperation framework for redefining the EU’s relations with Armenia and other neighboring countries. Indeed, Latvia, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council of...
Soviet-Style Rallies in the North Caucasus and Beyond Mark Crimea Annexation Anniversary
On March 18, Russia marked the first anniversary of the annexation of Crimea. The extent of the celebrations in southern Russia varied dramatically, according to Kavkazsky Uzel news agency reporters who were on the scene. Twenty people gathered for celebrations in Sochi, but about 13,000 people reportedly rallied in the city of Krasnodar. The...
Russian Factory Ownership Hurts Ukraine’s President Poroshenko
President Petro Poroshenko’s continued ownership of a confectionary manufacturing facility in Lipetsk, Russia, has become such a political burden for the Ukrainian leader that he specifically addressed the issue of its sale in an exclusive TV interview earlier this month (March 2015) (TSN, March 13). Ukraine’s president—who has yet to...
