Russia

Introduction The Russo-Ukrainian War, if dated to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, is the longest running conflict in Europe since the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815). It may come to resemble not just these wars in duration and...

 Executive Summary  Golden Dome has quickly become the signature defense program of President Trump’s second term. The most contentious element of this ambitious missile defense program is space-based interceptors; satellites designed to ram into ballistic missiles while they are...

Executive Summary The Soviet Union and Russia have invested in anti-satellite weapons to ensure that their nuclear deterrent remains credible. For both the Soviet Union and Russia, the destruction of American satellites was (and is) viewed as part of...

Russia sees opportunity in the Arctic. For centuries, ever-present sea ice has made the region hostile to trade or military exploitation. But as the ice melts, that reality is changing. Russia plans to capitalize on the economic benefit of...

At last week’s NATO Summit in Ankara, President Trump was hosted warmly by Turkish President Recep Erdogan. Trump, who generally attends NATO summits with a petulant attitude, reportedly said that he would not have attended this year’s summit had...

In mid-May, Belarus and Russia announced that they would conduct military exercises involving the delivery of nuclear weapons to units in the field. Over the next three days, imagery emerged of Russian and Belarusian forces practicing for the employment...

The following analysis was originally published on Two Marines, a newsletter on Russia’s war in Ukraine, defense technology, and modern warfare, on June 5, 2026.  One of the Russian military’s most important developments in 2024-2025 was the establishment of the...

Executive Summary Russia’s war against Ukraine has precipitated a large-scale structural decline for the Kremlin across economic, military, and geopolitical dimensions. Domestically, its war-driven economy is consistently strained by rising fiscal pressure, inflation, and structural imbalances linked to continuous...

Executive Summary A small group of Russian nationalists has been calling to “reclaim” Russia’s colonial territories since the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991. After the Kremlin finally acted on these aspirations by invading parts of Ukraine, the number...

Introduction For much of the post–Cold War period, Central Asia was framed as a space of Sino-Russian coordination, institutionalized through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and underwritten by a tacit division of labor: Russia provided security, and China delivered...