In early 2012 the Armed Forces (AF) were overshadowed by the accident with the fleet ballistic missile submarine (FBMS) K-84 "Yekaterinburg" and its grave consequences. The fire occurred three days before the New Year, during welding works as part of unscheduled repairs of the FBMS and where, in...

The number of Russian Armed Forces (RFAF) authorized strength at year-end 2017 increased 17,387 to 1,903,758 on the back of disbandment of the Federal Special Construction Agency (Spetsstroy); therefore, the RFAF's total authorized strength rose to 1,013,628 from 1 million. That was the first...

This paper deals with Russia’s military policy and with a wide range of issues related to funding the defense program. The accession of the Republic of Crimea to the Russian Federation in March 2014 was not favored by the global community and resulted in Western economic sanctions against...

The year 2006 was more successful as regards the achievements in the defense sphere than the preceding years, notwithstanding certain setbacks that occurred in implementing military reform, solving the social problems of the military and equipping the armed forces with modern weapons, which will...

A notable feature of post-World War II civil wars is their very long average duration. We provide a theory of the persistence of civil wars. The civilian government can successfully defeat rebellious factions only by creating a relatively strong army. In weakly-institutionalized polities this...

This paper deals with a variety of issues related to Russian military-industrial complex in the wake of Russia-Georgia conflict. The 2008 military and economic processes in RF have found themselves affected by changes in the nation's military and political leadership – the new Supreme...

The end of H1 2013 has been marked by frustrated military construction designs contrary to expectations of many members of the Russian Government and Presidential Executive Office. It appears that the problem has been caused not only by economic factors which are out of the scope of the Russian...