Russia Archive

In an apparent throwback to the Cold War era, Germany recently arrested a married couple suspected of acting as a sleeper cell on behalf of Russian intelligence. The news flew mainly below the radar of the English-language media, and it remains to be seen how German-Russian relations may be affected. But the arrests mark the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall that suspected Russian spies have been arrested on German soil. For Ben Judah, a London-based policy fellow and Russia specialist with the European Council on Foreign Relations, that highlights an evolving challenge facing the Russian intelligence […]

A new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has shed light on one of most important developments in the international arms trade market of the past 10 years: the decline in Russian arms sales to China. While diplomatic relations between the two powers remain relatively strong, their trade in arms has collapsed since the middle of the last decade. The cause of this collapse stems not from any substantial political conflict between the two, but rather from “ordinary” tensions that afflict great power relations. While the greatest immediate impact of this development will be felt by Russia and […]

Turkey’s energy minister announced earlier this month that the state-owned gas company BOTAS would not renew a gas deal with Gazprom when it expires in December due to a pricing dispute. In an email interview, Hasan Selim Ozertem, a researcher at Turkey’s International Strategic Research Organization, discussed Turkey-Russia energy relations. WPR: What is the nature of Turkey and Russia’s energy relationship, including gas and nuclear energy? Hasan Selim Ozertem: Russia is Turkey’s main energy supplier, with their energy relationship dating back to the Cold War period. In the post-Soviet era, relations have been positive, particularly in the area of natural […]

The reaction in much of the Western press to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s proposal of a Eurasian Union at the beginning of October was more or less predictable to longtime Russia watchers. Familiar accusations of Russian neo-imperialism and wild claims about a “new Soviet Union” abounded, feeding into a general narrative of Russia as a looming threat that must be contained. These fears are premature, to say the least. As Richard Weitz pointed out in his WPR column last week, the idea of some form of overarching supranational organization for the post-Soviet states has been a hallmark of Russian […]

China-Russia relations took another step forward during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing last week. With the Arab Spring throwing the two governments into an unexpected alliance at the United Nations this year, the visit marked the continuation of attempts to build a deeper and less volatile bilateral relationship. The two sides signed off on trade deals worth $7 billion, demonstrating a tangible effort to move beyond energy-based economic ties, while Putin suggested a greater focus on China for the Kremlin’s foreign policy after the recent period of rapprochement with the U.S. This suggests that, although mistrust and suspicion […]

The re-election this week of Poland’s pro-market and pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk made headlines for marking the first time in the nation’s post-communist era that a ruling party has won two consecutive terms. The victory confirms Tusk’s place at the forefront of a Polish political landscape still burdened by last year’s horrific national tragedy that saw President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other top political and military leaders perish in a plane crash. But it also reflects Tusk’s success at positioning Poland as a key intermediary within Europe’s greater geopolitical landscape, says Jana Kobzova, the coordinator of the Wider […]

Attempting to boost relations between Moscow and Beijing, the Russian prime minister has met the Chinese President as part of a two-day visit. Both countries have talked about building up a stretegic relationship, with new business and trade deals.

Is the world about to see a “drone race” among the United States, China and several other major powers? Writing in the New York Times, Scott Shane argued that just such an arms race is already happening and that it is largely a result of the widespread use of drones in a counterterror role by the United States. Shane suggests that an international norm of drone usage is developing around how the United States has decided to employ drones. In the future, we may expect that China, Russia and India will employ advanced drone technologies against similar enemies, perhaps in […]

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin followed up his unsurprising Sept. 24 declaration that he would again seek the presidency with a more surprising call: to create what he called a “Eurasian Union.” In a rare and lengthy newspaper piece published on Oct. 4, Putin announced his desire for Russia to again lead a multinational bloc of tightly bound, former Soviet republics. But major obstacles stand in the way of Putin’s project, and the prospects of a new Eurasian Union emerging anytime soon in the former Soviet space are small. Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told the influential Kommersant newspaper that […]

On Sept. 6, members of Afghanistan’s upper house of parliament declared that the Afghan government and the international community have failed in their counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan. Just three months earlier, Afghan Deputy Minister for Counternarcotics Baz Mohammad Ahmadi told reporters that more than 3 million Afghans continue to participate in the illicit drug industry. He pleaded with the international community to support further operations, especially in Afghanistan’s border provinces, and to consider establishing a counternarcotics academy within Afghanistan. Ten years after the United States first invaded the country on Oct. 7, 2001, the drug menace emanating from Afghanistan remains […]

When Viktor Yanukovych finally ascended to the presidency of Ukraine in 2010, commentators could be forgiven for thinking that the era of caustic bilateral relations with Russia, Ukraine’s largest neighbor and former imperial ruler, would come to an end. That era of tension had begun in 2004, after the Orange Revolution sidelined the largely pro-Russian wing of the Ukrainian oligarchy. For the following six years, Kiev and Moscow clashed on a seemingly endless range of issues, from esoteric debates on the interpretation of Soviet history to major international events like the Georgian War. Natural gas, in particular, became a source […]

Ukraine and Azerbaijan recently signed a deal on the supply of Azerbaijani liquefied natural gas to Ukraine. In an email interview, Natalia Shapovalova, a researcher at the Madrid-based think tank Fride, discussed Ukraine’s energy market. WPR: What is the current state of Ukraine’s energy relations with Russia? Natalia Shapovalova: Russia-Ukraine energy relations are difficult as both have diverging interests. Ukraine is interested in keeping gas prices low, the volumes and price of gas transit high and control over its gas pipeline independent. Russia wants just the opposite. Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych’s government has tried to revise the 2009 contract with […]