Carnegie Moscow Center
When Russian diplomats talk about Ukraine, they are actually speaking to just one man—Vladimir Putin. Moscow does not see any value in reaching out to the broad policy community in the West. The scary thing is that this behavior is not a consequence of the Ukrainian crisis, but one of its major sources.
Through its actions in Ukraine, Russia wants to consolidate its new strategic perimeter without being drawn into a full-scale war.
By hosting the seventh summit of the BRICS group, Vladimir Putin will demonstrate to the Russian people and the world that his country is anything but isolated.
Some experts’ concern that the amended version of the Russian military doctrine would significantly alter conditions for nuclear weapons’ use in the context of the Ukraine crisis and the resulting sharp escalation of the military and political situation has turned out to be premature.
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.