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EASTWEEK
Weekly analytical newsletter on Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus and Central Asia (also available in Polish as Tydzień na Wschodzie)

Contents

No. 31(140) | 2008-10-02
Also available in PDF

Analyses

  • Belarus: the outcome of elections does not preclude co-operation with the West

    The elections to the House of Representatives (the lower house of the Belarusian parliament), which ended on 28 September, did not meet democratic standards, as the initial OSCE report has expressed. The ballot was marred by numerous violations of the electoral laws, many instances of tampering with the vote count have been detected, and none of the democratic candidates succeeded in entering parliament.

  • Latin America as Moscow's bargaining chip

    Since the war with Georgia, Russia has significantly changed its policy towards certain Latin American states. So far, Moscow had been mainly interested in gaining economic benefits from those countries, while its political presence had remained limited. In recent weeks, however, Russia has decided to step up its political and military co-operation with the countries of the region, and to give that co-operation a wider propaganda dimension. This tendency is particularly apparent in the case of Venezuela (which has been offered a loan for the purchase of arms, and will hold a joint maritime exercise with Russia), as well as Nicaragua and Cuba.

Events

 

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Medvedev sets the tone for the Russian army's development
EASTWEEK

2008-10-02 | Andrzej Wilk

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During a meeting with the top ranking commanders of the Russian Armed Forces on 26 September, the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced that new guidelines had been adopted for the Russian army's development up to 2020. By the end of the next decade, the Russian armed force is to be transformed into a highly-professionalised state-of-the-art offensive force. In propaganda terms, Medvedev's statements should be seen as a challenge to the military dominance of the United States.

Russia's military intervention against Georgian in August has demonstrated that the professionalisation and technological modernisation of the Russian army, which was started during Vladimir Putin's presidential term, is producing the expected results. Russian forces were able to defeat the Georgians relatively quickly, by engaging a smaller force. At the same time, they have been continuing different military exercises on a scale comparable with Soviet times. On 26 September Medvedev took part in the closing of one of the phases of the Stability 2008 exercise, which spanned several weeks, and involved all the Russian institutions of force throughout the territory of the Russian Federation, in addition to the Armed Forces.

The guidelines concerning the development of the Russian army to 2020 are a continuation of the changes implemented so far during the period of Russia's financial prosperity. The practice suggests that the programme (to be elaborated by the end of December) will come to fruition. Medvedev's statements also show that Russia is not afraid of a possible reversal of the current favourable trends in the global economy, and intends to take advantage of the relative weakening of the United States. <wilk>

 

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