Author: Pavel Luzin, Eurasia Daily Monitor

The Kremlin’s disturbing rhetoric about the ties between the Islamic State (IS) terrorist attack that killed more than 140 people in Krasnogorsk and Ukrainian leadership has a likely explanation (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, March 26, 28). Moscow is primarily worried about the Russian people’s growing indifference to the domestic political agenda and the “long war”...

The true organizational state of the Russian Armed Forces has been a “black box” since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The exact number of troops at the Kremlin’s disposal is unclear, and the mix of contracted soldiers, volunteers and prisoners on the battlefield makes any accurate estimate extremely difficult....

While Kremlin leadership is trying to ignore the combat situation in Ukraine with, for example, an unnecessary sports festival in Perm, it has not given up on Russia’s goal to destroy the world order. Moscow seeks to upend the West’s economic, political and cultural dominance for an alternative, multipolar reality. Russia’s attempted offensive near Avdiivka...

On October 6, Russia voiced its intentions to cancel ratification of the Comp­re­hensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which Moscow signed in 1996 and officially ratified in 2000. Russian President Vladimir Putin delegated responsibility for this move to the Russian State Duma, and the legislative body and the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry began executing his order (Kremlin.ru,...

In 2023, regular spring conscription for military service in Russia started on April 1 and will end on July 15. The stated goal for this round of conscription is 147,000 soldiers, higher than the targets of 134,500 soldiers for spring 2022 and 120,000 soldiers for fall 2022. However, this number is comparable to the levels...

On May 26, during an episode of one of the countless political shows on state-run Russian television, Boris Nadezhdin, a local politician from Dolgoprudny near Moscow and former member of the State Duma, declared that, to restore Russian relations with Europe, it will be necessary to change the Kremlin’s leadership through the upcoming 2024 presidential...

As a result of recently proposed reforms, the Russian Navy’s four fleets – Pacific, Northern, Baltic and Black Sea – as well as the Caspian Flotilla would become directly subordinate to the central headquarters of the Russian Navy, as they were prior to the military reforms of 2009-2012, instead of to the respective commanders of...

On March 13, a draft law on increasing the age of conscription for military service in Russia was introduced to the State Duma. The planned increase, from 18 to 26 years old (“before 27 years old” as worded in the current law) to 21 to 29 years old (“before 30 years old” as written in...

Since February 2022, the Kremlin has been trying to clearly present the purpose and thinking behind its all-out aggression against Ukraine. The Russian authorities’ narratives began with President Vladimir Putin’s declarations of “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine together with punishment for Kyiv’s “decommunization.” However, this messaging did not resonate with a majority of Russians and...

On January 11, the Russian Ministry of Defense once again changed the command structure of the Russian forces fighting against Ukraine. Army Gen. Valery Gerasi­mov (born in 1955), former chief of the Russian General Staff, finally became the commander of Russia’s joint forces in Ukraine, replacing Army Gen. Sergei Suro­vikin (1966), commander of the Russian...

The final deficit of the Russian federal budget for 2022 appeared to be 3.35 trillion rubles, almost $48.8 billion according to the average exchange rate during the year. The ruble became a partially convertible currency after the beginning of Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine, and, therefore, the exchange rates must be treated carefully. The Russian government’s...

It is still three weeks before the fall conscription campaign in Russia ends. This conscription hopes to draft 120,000 new soldiers for all branches of the Russian Armed Forces, including several thousand recruits for the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia). It has also been five weeks since President Vladimir Putin’s “partial mobilization” was declared complete without...