Russia and Offensive Nuclear Arms Control: Major Obstacles

04/29/2012
By Richard Weitz Russia’s current Prime Minister and future President, Vladimir Putin, makes evident that the Russian government will not soon follow the Obama Administration towards nuclear disarmament. For example, on February 24, 2012, he told the media that Russia will not make any further unilateral or even bilateral cuts…

Putin’s Defense Procurement Challenge

03/13/2012
By Richard Weitz One of newly reelected President Vladimir Putin’s major challenges will be defense acquisition reform. In his February 20 Rossiiskaya Gazeta pre-election article on Russia’s military-industrial complex, Putin writes that "the goal for the decade is to equip our Armed Forces with next-generation armaments, which boast better visibility,…

Putin’s Rearmament: Can Moscow Afford It?

03/11/2012
by Richard Weitz What will President Putin's  defense policy look like in reality? The implications of Vladimir Putin’s return to the Russian presidency for his country’s defense policy became clearer after the Prime Minister published a lengthy article on the front page of the February 20 issue of the government…

Parsing Putin’s Foreign Policy Treatise

03/02/2012
by Richard Weitz Vladimir Putin, currently Russia’s prime minister and a candidate for the Russian presidency, set out his core foreign policy views in his latest pre-election newspaper article. Unlike most election manifestos, the content of this one seems to reflect Putin’s genuine views and the actual policies he will implement if elected.…