Russia

Workshop on Avoidance of Hazardous Military Incidents

On 21-22 September 2016, Kalev Stoicescu represented ICDS in a workshop on Avoidance of Hazardous Military Incidents (AHMI) organized by the European Leadership Network. AHMI (in the air space and at sea, in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea areas, but also elsewhere) has become a „hot“ topic since Russia has proposed in the NATO-Russia Council in July 2016, and thereafter actively promoted the idea of „turning on transponders“ (of military aircraft).

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ICDS Representative Speaks at a NATO Conference in Sofia

ICDS Research Fellow Henrik Praks spoke at the international conference “Adapting NATO to the New Challenges” which was held in Sofia, Bulgaria on October 4. The conference, part of a series organised by the Sofia Security Forum, explored the further adaptation of the North Atlantic Alliance in the aftermath of 2016 Warsaw Summit and in response to the variety of security challenges facing it.

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Presentation of the Book “Hybrid Warfare à La Russe” at the ICDS

On Friday, 30 September 2016, the book “Hybrid Warfare à la Russe” by Yuriy Fedorov was presented at the International Centre for Defence and Security. The book was published by the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS, Kyiv, Ukraine) in 2016. This 160-page publication written by Dr. Yury Fedorov is dealing with three main issues: (1) Russia’s aggression against Ukraine; (2) Russia and extreme right, ultra nationalist and extremist organizations in Europe; (3) Russia’s propaganda in Europe.

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Expert Briefing “Hopes and Worries in Eastern Ukraine”

On 23 September 2016 ICDS organized expert briefing “Hopes and worries in Eastern Ukraine”. Members of #ResilientUkraine team Anna Bulakh and Dmitri Teperik briefed the Estonian public on the current situation in eastern Ukraine after a week-long field trip to Ukraine’s east. In the framework of the project “Resilient Ukraine: Civil sector support to national security of Ukraine” funded by the Estonian development cooperation fund, ICDS experts visited Kyiv, Kharkiv and various cities in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area – Slovians’k, Kramators’k, Sievierodonets’k, Lysychans’k – to study current situation and recent developments in security sector.

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Pro-Kremlin Media Agents: Ukraine Between Security and Freedom of Speech

When talking about the anti-democratic and anti-European propaganda spread by the Kremlin, we often think of Russian state-controlled media like Sputnik, Zvezda or RT [Russia Today] trying to penetrate the media landscape of the EU and neighbouring countries and manipulate their citizens’ thinking. But some recent events in Ukraine prove that this is only the tip of the iceberg. The danger may exist for local media as well, and we seem to be far from working out how to deal with this.

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Is Belarus the Next in Line?

Many observers agree that President Putin does not appear to have a clearly defined foreign policy strategy or even tactics, although his aims to change profoundly the current world order and weaken to the maximum possible extent Western powers and institutions (in order to make enough room for Russian interests and influence in Europe and beyond), as well as his readiness to use force are quite obvious. Putin and the Russian elite seem to be guided by a sense of fulfilling Russia’s destiny, a messianic vision that has to be implemented by exploiting indiscriminately any suitable and promising opportunities, as soon as these arise. The element of surprise – i.e. choosing the particular time and place, and especially the flexible way of conducting military, disinformation etc. operations that very few are able to predict – is always the Kremlin’s trump card.

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