Russia News

As Russia and other nations around the world flex their “nuclear muscles,” when it comes to the United States, maintaining a credible nuclear force is certainly a tough task. Challenges include: declining research, development and acquisition budgets; uncertain prospects for modernization, and an American public that lacks a clear understanding of how nuclear weapons contribute…

Following a unanimous vote in the National Assembly’s Infrastructure Committee, Nicaraguan officials have begun preparations for the so-called Interoceanic Grand Canal, which will connect to Lake Nicaragua by means of a 177.7 mile (286 km) waterway. President Daniel Ortega signed an agreement for the ambitious construction project with Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company…

When people think of computer hacking, China immediately comes to mind. Recent news reports, however, puts the spotlight on Russia as a sophisticated state player silently infiltrating U.S. cyber systems. ABC News reported that a “Trojan Horse” malware program, reportedly of Russian origin, infiltrated the software of critical infrastructures in the U.S. and has been…

A new “Russian Soft Power” report from the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency has concluded that President Vladimir Putin is both the main asset and the main intellectual force in the Russian bid for global public opinion. Though Putin’s personal charisma may not be as overwhelming as ITAR-TASS reports to those of us here in the…

On October 29, Serbian news sources reported that the Kremlin planned to open 29 bureaus of Rossiya Segodnya, a Russian state media outlet, in capital cities worldwide. The plan to open the bureaus will augment the Kremlin’s global presence. The increase in media outlets allows Russia to continue to export propaganda intended to influence foreign…

Earlier this month, it was discovered that a sophisticated cyber espionage campaign had been targeting Western government leaders and institutions—including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, energy and telecommunication companies, the Ukrainian and European Union governments, and one academic inside the United States—for almost 5 years. Dubbed “Sandworm,” a reference to the science fiction series Dune,…

On Friday, the White House announced that President Obama would remove Russia’s eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a trade program that gives preferential tariff treatment to developing countries. The move, which the Administration telegraphed as far back as 2013, is justified under GSP program guidelines that limit participation to only poor countries….

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) that the U.S. State Department and the Obama Administration championed has been a bad deal for the U.S. Despite the fact that the U.S.’s international security obligations are vastly different from Russia’s, the treaty codified that the U.S. will have the same number of nuclear warheads as…

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to impose a one-year ban on many agricultural imports from the United States and other countries that have imposed economic sanctions against Russia in connection with its actions in Eastern Ukraine—namely Australia, Canada, the European Union (EU), and Norway. The impact on the U.S. should be relatively small….

American officials have confirmed that Russia has been violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The INF Treaty was concluded in 1987 and prohibits all ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Pointing to official Russian media sources, defense analysts Mark Schneider and Keith Payne contend that Russia has been developing…