President Vladimir Putin has made Russian development and control of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) one of his top priorities. In his remarks on this topic, Putin has regularly projected enormous growth in the transit of cargo along the NSR on Russian ships in the... MORE

Russia’s use of cruise missiles during its military operations in Syria generated much media and analytical attention at home and abroad. Despite questions surrounding the military value of such usage of high-precision strikes on targets in Syria, the success of using sea-launched and air-launched cruise... MORE

The German government has submitted a revamped proposal for Russia to “ensure” unimpeded shipping through the Kerch Strait and Azov Sea, where Russia’s de facto control is usurping Ukraine’s rights. Berlin’s offer centers on international monitoring of the safety of navigation there (see EDM, January... MORE

On January 10, Azerbaijan displayed its new Tufan (“Storm”)–class patrol ship for the country’s State Border Service. The vessel features Israeli-made navigational, monitoring and radio-telecommunication devices as well as advanced missile complexes (President.az, January 10). The Border Guard also received new SkyStriker autonomous loitering munitions... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here.   Less than two weeks after ringing in the New Year, the Romanian government halted its naval modernization plans due to legal and administrative delays (MAPN, January 11, 2019). This suspension deals a huge blow to Bucharest’s efforts... MORE

On January 18, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas submitted to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow a freshened-up German proposal for Russia to “ensure” unimpeded shipping through the Kerch Strait. In that case, a German-French group would monitor the traffic to certify that it... MORE

The official visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Serbia, on January 17, has raised high expectations among both the Serbian leadership and the public that Moscow would help Belgrade win its territorial dispute with Kosovo (Balkan Insight, January 17; TASS, January 16). Moscow evidently... MORE

Nikolai Statkevich, a leader of the opposition Belarusian National Congress, warned in late December 2018 that, if Moscow sends troops into Belarus in an effort to annex it, Belarusians would resist and ensure that their country would not be “a second Crimea” but rather “a... MORE

Commenting on remarks from early December 2018 by Vice Admiral Andrew Lewis, the commander of the United States Second Fleet, that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) knows how to deal with the Russian military posture in Crimea and Kaliningrad, the deputy chair of the... MORE

A last-ditch attempt by Russia and the United States to salvage the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at a consultation meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 15, ended in mutual acrimony. Washington has accused Moscow of deploying a modified Iskander land-mobile missile launcher fitted... MORE