... emphasis on gradual technological modernization — including a continued buildup of forces stationed along the border with Ukraine in order to give Moscow more instruments for intervening in the course of the Ukrainian conflict. At the same time, Moscow ... ... and expensive aerospace and naval weapons programs have effectively been pushed back to the mid-2020s or even beyond 2027.
In Syria, Putin will keep trying to convert the military success of the Russian intervention into political and diplomatic gains,...
... Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania – Kaliningrad – Stockholm. The participation of Danes, Poles, and Germans is welcome, but not required.
Ukraine
Minsk agreements are fine, but one of the reasons they have not worked in practice is, that there has been no solution ... ... hear about that). And the Skripal case. All these are secondary and solvable, issues, once the above hard-points are solved.
Syria
Andrey Kortunov:
Russia: the Power Broker in the Middle East?
If it is at all possible to speak of any “winner” in ...
....S. military
downed
a Syrian aircraft that was purportedly threatening U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Force militias, which Washington says were fighting the Islamic State... ... likewise affirmed that the U.S. remains committed to future discussions about eastern Ukraine and Crimea, as well as Afghanistan.
But given increasingly bitter imprecations... ... could help lead to the eventual resolution of a number of disputes.
Ilya Kravchenko:
USA and NATO: Who Needs Who?
Geostrategic Concerns
At the roots of the crisis is the fact that NATO and the European Union (EU) have now expanded to states that border the Russian Federation in...