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Russia is preparing its Nuclear Missiles as China claiming Vladivostok (Credits- News Alert)

Russia’s spending on defence ( Source- Russia & India Report/ Author- Nikolay Litovkin, RIR)

Russian Special forces ( Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author-   http://eng.mil.ru/en/index.htm ) Source- Russia & India Report Author- Nikolay Litovkin , RIR How much is Russia spending on defence? The Stockholm International Peace research Institute (SIPRI) said Russia has increased its defence spending by 7.5 percent in 2015, with the Defence Ministry’s budget reaching $66.4 billion, How does this compare with other countries?   According to SIPRI, the world’s biggest military spender, the USA, spent $596 billion on its defence in 2015. Next was China, with $215 billion; and Saudi Arabia, with $87 billion. India spent $51 billion on defence in 2015. What share of GDP does it constitute? Percentage-wise, Russia is among the leaders in terms of the share of GDP spent on defence. The USA’s defence spending makes up 3.3 percent of the country’s GDP. China spends around 1.9 percent, whereas Russia’s amounts to 5.4 percent of GDP. The Russian figure is the wo

The Rise of the New Authoritarians? ( Source- The National Interest / Author- John Hemmings)

Source- The National Interest Author- John Hemmings The news last week that the U.S. defense budget will increase dramatically to face challenges in Asia and Europe came as no surprise. In many ways, one could argue that it marks the beginning of a new deterrence strategy by the United States, reacting to the rise of Chinese and Russian assertiveness: Force will be matched by force. Moscow and Beijing will be discouraged from picking off the smaller and less-capable members and allies of the West. Latvia will not become a new Ukraine. Chinese bullying in the South China Sea will remain just that, bullying. It is clear, however, that there is more going on here than simply the “rise of the rest” as was previously thought. There seems to be a new age of silent competition and geopolitics taking place. It is riddled with grand ambitions and grand stakes. In one corner is a fractured West, one-time victor of the Cold War, now exhausted by fifteen years of inconclusive wars

Russia's Military Is Catching Up to the West by Fighting in Syria ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Blake Franko)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Vitaly Kuzmin) Source- The National Interest Author- Blake Franko There has been much sensational media attention over Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to shore up Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, with hints that it could even be the start of a second Afghanistan for Russia. But there are strong incentives for Russia to fight in a limited role in Syria. The New York Times recently highlighted this, detailing how Russia under Putin has been keen on advancing its military prowess and Syria has therefore become Russia’s proving ground. In this sense, the invasion of Ukraine and intervention in Syria are no mistake, but rather stepping stones toward a larger Russian strategic goal. Besides the obvious reasons—supporting an ally who secures regional interests and landing an embarrassing blow to the Obama administration’s Middle East policy—Russia’s military is continuing its march toward professionalization. Putin has been sho

Russia's Massive Military Buildup in Asia (Source- The National Interest / Author- rebecca M.Miller)

Russian S-400 SAM ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- UMNICK) Source- The National Interest Author- Rebecca M. Miller Russia has doubled the number of S-400 air defense system it deploys in its far east region as part of a larger military buildup in the region. Reports in Russian state-media, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, say that Moscow has deployed yet another S-400 missile defense system to the Kamchatka Peninsula; according to the Russian defense ministry. The reports said that Russia ultimately intends to deploy five S-400 systems to protect Kamchatka’s skies. The S-400 is one of the most advanced air defense systems in the world, and can be equipped with missiles with ranges between 120 km to 400 km (long-range). The system can shoot down anything from small aircraft to ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads. The S-400 is already deployed around Moscow and St. Petersburg, and Severomorsk, which is where Russia’s Northern Fleet is bas

China’s Growing Presence in Russia’s Backyard ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Neil Thompson)

Image credits- www.kremlin.ru Source- The Diplomat Author- Neil Thompson Russia’s President Vladimir Putin famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. A conservative Russian nationalist, Putin has lamented the break-up of the old Soviet Union, not because he regretted the disappearance of communism, but because of the severing of the numerous and deep economic, linguistic, social, and cultural connections that linked most of the fifteen constituent republics of the old USSR. It is these ties he is keen to recreate, albeit in a looser supranational union than the old federal structure which bound the fifteen national-homelands into one communist “state.” This vision, if not exactly shared by a majority of the peoples living in the lands of the former Soviet Union, was received with some sympathy – at least until Ukraine’s easternmost Russian-speaking regions were roused to revolt by Russian intell

Will China Bail Out Putin? ( Source- The Diplomat / Authors- Andrew Collier, Arthur Peng and Abigail Collier)

Image credits- RT.com Source- The Diplomat Author- Andrew Collier, Arthur Peng and Abigail Collier  China has been increasingly willing to help countries experiencing financial distress. This is part of a larger attempt to follow President Xi Jinping’s desire to make China “more engaged with the world.” Stepping in to help Russia would be another notch in China’s bailout belt. However, despite China’s increased economic support for Russia, China’s support is likely to remain indirect and limited. Chinese bank loans and natural resource imports have provided Russia with some substantial economic advantages. Despite energy demand sinking to its lowest level since 1992, China’s imports from Russia have climbed in price and volume. This has been accompanied by Beijing’s promises for substantial infrastructure projects and long-term agreements. Likewise, several Chinese banks, including the Export-Import Bank of China, Bank of Harbin, China Export & Credit Insurance, a

Russia’s Waning Soft Power in Central Asia ( Source- The Diplomat, Author- Stephen Blank)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Attributes- Kremlin  Source- The Diplomat Author- Stephen Blank Allegedly, Russia invaded Ukraine because Russians and Russian speakers there were in danger of losing their cultural-political rights to a supposedly neo-Nazi, Fascist government there. Of course, these charges were wholly mendacious. But they do highlight the salience of Russian language use in the countries of the Russian diaspora of the former Soviet Union as having a direct bearing on the security of those states. Indeed, a 2009 Russian law that Russian President Vladimir Putin directly invoked to justify the invasion of Crimea permits the Russian president to order troops into other countries to uphold the “honor and dignity” of Russians and Russian speakers if it is being violated. Given that, it should be clear that linguistic policy in Central Asian countries is a matter of the utmost importance, requiring considerable subtlety on the part of Central Asian leaders.

2015: The Year of the Bear? 5 Ways Russia Can Regroup ( Source- The National Interest, Author- Nikholas K. Gvosdev)

President Vladimir Putin ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons /   Author- Kremlin ) Source- The National Interest Author- Nikholas K. Gvosdev If I were a strategist advising the Russian government on key national-security objectives for 2015 (and I am not), here would be five priorities for the year: First, the Kremlin needs to beat back the so-called “Maidan challenge” in Ukraine. Any consolidation of a westward-leaning administration, especially one that successfully undertakes the economic and security reforms that would make it easier to contemplate closer and more meaningful relations between Ukraine and NATO and the European Union, without also guaranteeing Russian equities, remains a critical danger to Moscow’s interests. This challenge, after the Orange Revolution in 2004, was met by the implosion of the coalition that spearheaded the dramatic political shift and by its subsequent inability once in government to deliver on any substantial reforms. While former U

Vietnam's ballistic missile can strike southern China: Kanwa ( Source- The Want China Times)

Kilo Class Submarine ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author- Ria Novosti) Source- The Want China Times With an attacking range of 280 kilometers, the Vietnamese navy's 3M-14E Klub-S submarine-launched ballistic missile can be used against China's Hainan and Guangdong provinces when launched from southern Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay, military analyst Andrei Chang, also known as Pinkov, wrote in an article for the Kanwa Defense Review, a Chinese-language military magazine based in Canada. The purchase of 3M-14E ballistic missiles from Russia makes Vietnam's six Kilo-class 636MV submarines more powerful than their Chinese counterparts. Pinkov said the 3M-14E is only allowed to be exported to Algeria, India and Vietnam. It is not allowed to be installed aboard China's Kilo-class MV submarines yet. In a war between China and Vietnam, the Vietnamese navy is very likely to use the submarines in the vanguard against the PLA Navy. The Vietnamese subs have also u

Russia's Moment of Crisis: Moscow Might Be Down, but Not Out (Source- The National Interest, Author- Nikolas K. Gvosdev)

Kremlin ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author- Julmin/Surendil) Source- The National Interest Author- Nikolas K. Gvosdev) Western commentators reporting on events in Russia have a tendency to swing from one extreme to the next. Seven months ago, when oil prices were high and the Kremlin had seemingly amputated Crimea off from Ukraine without firing a shot, the narrative was about an unstoppable Vladimir Putin who would soon be overrunning all Eastern and Central Europe. Today, he is being placed on deathwatch, with prognosticators speculating about precisely when the Russian economy will collapse and Putin will be overthrown. With the precipitous fall in the value of the ruble—something a major interest-rate hike by the Russian Central Bank seemed unable to reverse—some pundits are even crowing that the Ukrainian hryvnia is doing better than the Russian currency. It helps to step back and put the larger picture in perspective. The hryvnia is the currency of a cou

Putin's Strategy Of Covert War In Eastern Ukraine May Be Blowing Up In His Face ( Copy Right @ The Business Insider)

Russian President Vladimir Putin ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ www.kremlin.ru) The missile that may have brought down a Malaysian Airlines plane was likely fired from inside Ukrainian territory, possibly by militants affiliated with the Donetsk People's Republic. But the militia's force composition, and the likely provenance of the weaponry that may have brought down the plane, both point elsewhere. For the past several months, the rebellion in eastern Ukraine has resembled the Russian doctrine of  tainaya voina  or "mysterious war" - the practice of using a combination of proxies, covert agents, and misinformation to achieve strategic objectives without the use of conventional force. If it turns out that pro-Russian militants shot down MH17, the incident could trigger significant blowback from from a strategy that Moscow has pursued in eastern Ukraine for months. In early June, the Vostok Battalion, a Russian intelligence-linked paramilitary gro