Russia
Russia is asserting itself as an imperial power. Isolated since its invasion of Ukraine, it is seeking to strengthen its ties with non-Western countries. At home, Vladimir Putin's regime is hardening.
Related Subjects
Russia-North Korea Alliance: A New Threat to Global Security and Korean Stability?
An interview with Wooyeal PAIK, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Yonsei University. He analyses why North Korea's support for Russia could escalate global tensions, strain the EU-NATO security ties, and destabilize the Korean Peninsula.
Global Financial Shifts: The Impact of Dollar Sanctions and Frozen Russian Assets
An interview with Brad Setser, Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow (Council on Foreign Relations) led at Ifri on September 24, 2024.
Dollar-based financial sanctions have been increasing, particularly since the beginning of the century. Is this phenomenon likely to significantly alter the international role of the dollar?
There is a lot of controversy about the in which way frozen assets from Russia’s central bank should be treated, regarding both the assets themselves and the associated revenues. What consequences do you foresee for the international financial system?
In Putin's wartime Russia, military corruption is suddenly taboo
To be sure government spending reaches the battlefield in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin is suddenly putting high priority on purging Defense Ministry officials accused of corruption. Russia's war in Ukraine has turned out to be a powerful anti-corruption initiative — at least at the Ministry of Defense.
Cracks In Western Support Pose New Challenge For Ukraine
Ukraine faces growing diplomatic headwinds after its summer counter-offensive against Russia's forces faltered, with aid from vital backers in the United States and EU being increasingly called into question.
Gaza-Israel conflict: Opportunity and risk for Russia's Putin
The conflict between Hamas and Israel is both an opportunity and a risk for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been mired in pressing his invasion of Ukraine for the past 19 months.
Gaza-Israel conflict: Opportunity and risk for Russia's Putin
The conflict between Hamas and Israel is both an opportunity and a risk for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been mired in pressing his invasion of Ukraine for the past 19 months.
Gaza-Israel conflict: Opportunity and risk for Russia's Putin
The conflict between Hamas and Israel is both an opportunity and a risk for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been mired in pressing his invasion of Ukraine for the past 19 months.
Dimitri Minic: 'The Kremlin's credibility has been shaken'
For this Russian army specialist, at least part of the armed forces rallying behind the founder of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, cannot be ruled out.
Dimitri Minic: 'The Russian army is influenced by beliefs that detaches it from objective reality'
According to the researcher, the failure of the Russian army in Ukraine is the result of the implementation of a theory that emerged in the 2000s, which places a central focus on 'psychological-informational' warfare rather than armed combat.
Xi's Moscow Visit Risks Further Emboldening Putin: Analysts
There is no sign the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow will rein in President Vladimir Putin in his war in Ukraine, even if it again highlights a lopsided relationship where Russia is clearly the junior partner, analysts say.
Russian Military Manpower After Two and a Half Years of War in Ukraine
In addition to a military victory in Ukraine, the Russian leadership is planning to build up sizable troop formations for a possible conflict with NATO in the Baltic region and the Kola Peninsula. In particular, current plans aim for the military manpower to grow by about 350,000, reaching a total of 1.5 million soldiers and commanders. In the context of the current conflict in Ukraine, this cannot be accomplished without a new wave of mass mobilization.
Russian Strategic Thinking and Culture Before and After February 24, 2022: Political-Strategic Aspects
Written by Dimitri Minic, the scientific article "Russian Strategic Thinking and Culture Before and After February 24, 2022: Political-Strategic Aspects" in Russia’s war against Ukraine: Complexity of Contemporary Clausewitzian War by the National Defence University Department of Warfare, Helsinki 2024.
Russia in the Arctic: The End of Illusions and the Emergence of Strategic Realignments
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has triggered profound changes in the Arctic region, the consequences of which remain uncertain in the long term.
India-Russia Relations in Troubled Times: Steady but Stagnating
This paper examines the trajectory of India-Russia relations post-February 2022. The war in Ukraine emerged as a significant challenge for bilateral ties, presenting new obstacles to political and diplomatic relations and intensifying the previous difficulties in developing economic cooperation.
How the Russian Army Changed its Concept of War, 1993-2022
The traditional and high-intensity war that has occurred in Ukraine since Russia decided to invade raises a key issue: did post-soviet Russian strategic thought really prepare Russia for waging this war?
Reflection on Russia’s Changing Image in the Post-Soviet Region
The two years preceding the Russian invasion of Ukraine suggested that Russia had adopted a measured policy toward the post-Soviet space. Faced with social protests in Belarus, a coup in Kyrgyzstan, the victory of pro-European president Maia Sandu in Moldova, the second war in Nagorno-Karabakh, and riots in Kazakhstan, Russia showed diplomatic ability without any hard arm-twisting of partners. In 2020, then Carnegie Moscow Center director Dmitry Trenin even concluded that “there will be no new edition of the empire”. The war in Ukraine has completely changed this analysis.
Russia, the Global Sanitary Crisis and Oil Meltdown: Revisiting Power and the Enemy
In global affairs, the Covid-19 virus makes all countries, powers and individuals equal in one dimension: none is immune to or spared from contamination. In an open and interdependent world, we are all exposed to global sanitary and environmental degradations. Russia is no exception: it has gone into lockdown, with increasing economic and social costs adding up to the fall in oil and gas prices and upcoming impacts of the global recession.
Russia’s Energy Strategy-2035: Struggling to Remain Relevant
Russia’s Energy Strategy to 2035 (ES-2035) enters, finally, the home stretch. The Ministry of Energy submitted its version of the document to the Russian Government in early October 2019.
Is a 'Reset' Between France and Russia Needed and, If So, Is It Possible?
As Emmanuel Macron hosts Angela Merkel, Vladimir Zelenskiy, and Vladimir Putin for a summit aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict, it is worth taking stock of the French leader’s Russia policy to try to discern what Paris’s policy toward Moscow can and cannot achieve.
The Arctic: Critical Metals, Hydrogen and Wind Power for the Energy Transition
According to a 2008 estimate, the Arctic hosts approximately 412 billion barrels of oil equivalent of conventional oil and gas resources. And since then, following the so-called shale revolution and technology improvements, numbers have gone even higher.
Cracks In Western Support Pose New Challenge For Ukraine
Ukraine faces growing diplomatic headwinds after its summer counter-offensive against Russia's forces faltered, with aid from vital backers in the United States and EU being increasingly called into question.
Gaza-Israel conflict: Opportunity and risk for Russia's Putin
The conflict between Hamas and Israel is both an opportunity and a risk for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been mired in pressing his invasion of Ukraine for the past 19 months.
Gaza-Israel conflict: Opportunity and risk for Russia's Putin
The conflict between Hamas and Israel is both an opportunity and a risk for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been mired in pressing his invasion of Ukraine for the past 19 months.
Gaza-Israel conflict: Opportunity and risk for Russia's Putin
The conflict between Hamas and Israel is both an opportunity and a risk for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been mired in pressing his invasion of Ukraine for the past 19 months.
Dimitri Minic: 'The Kremlin's credibility has been shaken'
For this Russian army specialist, at least part of the armed forces rallying behind the founder of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, cannot be ruled out.
Military briefing: How will Russia’s mobilisation affect the war in Ukraine?
Kyiv expects new recruits to appear within two months but Moscow struggles with training and logistical obstacles.
C.Africa's Leap Into Bitcoin Leaves Its People Bemused
In the Central African Republic (CAR), nine out of 10 people do not have internet, and only one in seven has electricity -- that is, when there are no power cuts.
Yet the CAR has just followed El Salvador in adopting bitcoin as legal tender, a currency that requires access to the net to be bought, sold or used.
Le Pen Closer Than Ever to the French Presidency (and to Putin)
As elections approach Sunday, the far-right candidate is linked to the Russian president by a web of financial ties and a history of support that has hardly dimmed despite the war in Ukraine.
Putin’s War is Stuck, Beware The Rising Risks
Data on the concentration of Russian troops was solid; the diplomatic offensive executed by Moscow was deliberately disagreeable; yet, many experts (myself including) refused to accept the proposition on the coming war as “inevitable”.
Moscow’s tried and tested Georgia strategy now tailored for Ukraine
Western powers appear unable to thwart Putin’s strategy to reassert Russian influence
Russia-North Korea Alliance: A New Threat to Global Security and Korean Stability?
An interview with Wooyeal PAIK, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Yonsei University. He analyses why North Korea's support for Russia could escalate global tensions, strain the EU-NATO security ties, and destabilize the Korean Peninsula.
Global Financial Shifts: The Impact of Dollar Sanctions and Frozen Russian Assets
An interview with Brad Setser, Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow (Council on Foreign Relations) led at Ifri on September 24, 2024.
Dollar-based financial sanctions have been increasing, particularly since the beginning of the century. Is this phenomenon likely to significantly alter the international role of the dollar?
There is a lot of controversy about the in which way frozen assets from Russia’s central bank should be treated, regarding both the assets themselves and the associated revenues. What consequences do you foresee for the international financial system?
Siloviki: What Influence on Russia's Domestic and Foreign Policy?
3 questions to Mark GALEOTTI, Senior Researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague, Director of Mayak Intelligence consultancy.
Does Russia still have an "energy weapon"?
What are the Current Challenges for Gazprom and Russia’s Energy Policy? What are the Gas Risks for Europe? Is the Nord Stream-II a Risk or an Opportunity for Europe?
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