Russia is the unquestioned aggressor in Ukraine. It has built up powerful forces all along its borders with NATO members in Europe, to the point where it enjoys a very visible conventional superiority against them there. Recently, NATO’s new chairman said that the Russian military could overrun the Baltic States in just two days. Furthermore […]
The late Adam Ulam, one of the giants of Soviet and Russian studies, wrote in his biography of Stalin that while Russian history is tragic and glorious, it also is preposterous. Under Putin this quality has come to the fore as he and his trolls dutifully stoke what Henry Adams called the systematic organization of […]
As the guns begin to fall silent over Europe’s newest frozen conflict (or at least some of the guns), joining a long and terribly depressing line of conflicts such as Transdniester, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the exact opposite is happening to Russia’s defense policy and military plans in the region. Russia continues to fly provocative […]
Three to five days is all the Russian military would need to overrun Ukrainian resistance in the east and south of the country if the decision was made to invade. Within 12 hours of ordering an invasion, Russian troops described as: “a very large and very capable and very ready force” could be across the […]
Other than the repeated denunciations of the west aggravating the situation by a coterie of Russian government officials (Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu dismissed claims that Russian troops were in Crimea as an “act of provocation” and “utter nonsense”), one would be hard pressed to find any serious commentator still denying that the troops blockading Ukrainian […]
The headlines over the last couple weeks have rightly been focused on Ukraine and its unenviable position as a pawn being torn asunder by the competing interests of the EU and Russia. The situation is merely another example of how Russia uses economic intimidation and its supply of hydrocarbons to enact foreign policy ambitions (Russia […]
Recently, it seems that not a week goes by where the Russian military is not staging some very public exercise or announcing the arrival or planning of new equipment. Not since Peter the Great or the massive military buildup in WWII has the Russian military experienced such a windfall of money and political support. The […]
