Carnegie Moscow Center
The year 2014 ended the period of cooperation between Russia and the West. A new period has begun, marked by rivalry and competition. At the same time, Russia has been seeking ways to strengthen ties with leading non-Western powers.
Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic in the North Caucasus, is now firmly entrenched in Russian politics at the federal-level, and it appears that he is there to stay, because Putin and Kadyrov really need each other.
The current political crisis in Russia’s relations with the West gives a strong impetus to Russian rapprochement with Asian countries. However, many analysts are of the opinion that no significant progress in this area has been achieved as of yet.
To escape the analogy of a revolution, Vladimir Putin must rise above the rapacious elite, and to avoid being overthrown, he must replace it.
A book by the younger authors from the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), Brothers Armed: Military Aspects of the Crisis in Ukraine, takes stock of the changes wrought in the Russian military organization and also analyzes the operation of the Russian forces in the current crisis in Ukraine.
For the Russian economic and political system, as well as for the country’s foreign relations, the current economic crisis is an existential one. Russia will exit from it in a very different form from what it is today.
As one of his final acts in 2014, President Putin signed on December 26 the country’s new military doctrine. The new doctrine makes it clear that even if the West is not officially an adversary, it is a powerful competitor and a bitter rival, a source of most of military risks and threats.
The crisis presents Putin with an opportunity to tighten his grip on business, to see who is loyal and who is not, to pick winners and losers, to decide who will receive state support and whose assets should be “redistributed”.
In 2014, Russia broke out of the post–Cold War order and openly challenged the U.S.-led international system. Moscow’s new course is laid down first and foremost by President Vladimir Putin, but it also reflects the rising power of Russian nationalism.
In 2014, Russia broke out of the post–Cold War order and openly challenged the U.S.-led international system. The new period of rivalry between the Kremlin and the West is likely to endure for years.