In Late December of last year, Chechnya’s excitable leader Ramzan Kadyrov gave a fiery speech to thousands of his troops, pledging to be “Vladimir Putin’s combat infantry” and to perform tasks the Russian military could not fulfill. While never shy of publicity (see his Instagram) or incendiary statements and actions, stunts such as the speech […]
Mass protests, violent attacks against the police, Molotov cocktails, stones, sticks, women and children… The scene could easily be mistaken for the Maidan early last year, but in fact it was a recent training operation by Russia’s Interior Ministry to prepare for just such an eventually on the streets of Moscow—Zaslon 2015. The scene of […]
In the aftermath of the murder of Nemtsov there have been comparison’s to the murder of Kirov in 1934, marking the beginning of the Terror unleashed by Stalin. Despite the flagrant nature of this murder, and the circumstantial evidence linking it, if not Putin himself, to members of the political elite (such as Kadyrov in […]
Look at Ukraine and a few things become clear. The first is that Russia is willing to pledge bullets and troops to meet its goals. The other is that the West, and especially the EU, are more willing to fight with dollars and Euros rather than bullets. Since the early occupation of Crimea, sanctions and […]
With fighting raging in Ukraine and any sign of a legitimate peace agreement gone over this latest round of fighting, both Kiev and the rebels are looking to beef up their numbers and prepare for what is sure to be another long stretch of fighting. Apparently the self-declared “Donetsk People’s Republic,” or DNR, has grand […]
In some ways it was inevitable; neither side was content with the status quo. Kiev was loathe to accept the de facto suzerainty that had been established in the east, and the ongoing civilian and military casualties were becoming a political liability, a symbol of President Poroshenko’s refusal or inability to bring the Donbass back […]
The fate of the anti-corruption and opposition leader Alexey Navalny over his most recent criminal charges has come to a rather abrupt and seemingly impromptu end. Sentenced to a suspended 3.5 years, he was spared the far harsher sentence the prosecution sought of ten years in prison. However the real victim was his brother Oleg, […]
On December 4, hours before Putin was to give a defiant speech about Russia being surrounded by enemies and defeating any attempts to divide it, terrorists conducted an impeccably-timed and surprising attack in the manicured capital of the former war torn republic of Chechnya, Grozny. Despite claims from Ramzan Kadyrov—Chechnya’s social media obsessed overlord— that […]
Not long after an Estonian counter-intelligence (KAPO) officer was kidnapped and paraded before Moscow TV cameras, Sweden is now playing its own version of “whack-a-mole,” with its navy hunting for phantom objects after reports suggest a Russian submarine or mini-sub is stranded in its waters. It is not clear exactly what is happening. Reports have […]
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 […]
