Foreign Policies In Russia

  As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, another front in the war between Russia’s authoritarian allies versus the Western world has been going on for some time. The propaganda battle has been ongoing in Latin America for years. A trio of media networks controlled by Russia and Iran has built a popular following among Spanish speakers. These networks peddle a misinformation narrative that aims to delegitimize the West and portray Russia, Iran, and other authoritarian regimes as a counter-imperialist force that supports worldwide democracy. This narrative may seem laughable to many in the West, but about 500 million Spanish speakers within Latin America and the United States follow these authoritarian-backed news sources. According to foreign policy experts such as Clifford D. May , these propaganda news outlets include TelesSur, Russia Today, and HispanTV. This trio of news platforms began emerging back in 2005 and has gained a sizable following since. The misinformation narrat...

It would be incorrect to assume Russia shares an interest with the United States to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons. This assumption is fraught with errors. A nuclear capability for Iran will be an asset for Russia in their efforts to halt the United States from intervening in the Middle East as Russia and Iran work together to conquer and control more of the region. Russia has already conquered parts of Georgia, taken Crimea, and is now trying to conquer all of Ukraine. However, Russia’s foreign policy goals are not limited to the conquest of Ukraine and Europe. Over the past several years, Russia has been working together with Iran and the Syrian dictator Assad to dominate the Middle East . Russia has been responsible for the destruction of entire towns and the deaths of large civilian populations in Syria. Both Russia and Tehran share the goal of deterring the United States and the West from interfering with their continued Middle Eastern conquest. An Iranian regime wi...

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Russia have been competing with the United States for global influence. This competition has become more pronounced amid controversy surrounding China’s aggressive actions toward its neighboring island nation, Taiwan. Since the end of the cold war, China has increasingly become the leading global competitor to rival the influence of the United States.  At times, the authoritarian regimes of Russia and China have joined together in foreign policy efforts to diminish U.S. global influence and expand their own. Despite this competition playing out on the world stage, the CCP publicly rejects the claim that China is competing with the U.S. By denying any intention to compete, this rejection serves as an attempt by China to claim the moral high ground as the world watches through the media. Only a few months ago, the CCP ordered a record-breaking number of military aircraft to fly into Taiwan’s airspace. Leading researchers on foreign policy such a...

  The New Cold War: China and Russia’s Blame Game Since the end of the cold war, China and Russia have increasingly positioned themselves as the primary competitors with the United States for global influence in the modern world. Recently, tensions between the United States and China have escalated. This growing friction with China is centered around the subject of Taiwan, and this conflict serves as a means for China and Russia to align themselves in portraying themselves as global peacekeepers and the United States as an international bully. China still views Taiwan as an island under the sovereignty of China, or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), despite Taiwan being a functioning independent nation. The United States is a significant supporter of Taiwan, providing large amounts of military aid and support to bolster Taiwan’s position as an independent nation. Washington has been providing billions of dollars in aid to the island nation in the form of arms and military train...

Russia has recently launched a ransomware attack on a massive scale targeting an American information technology (IT) firm. The Russian hackers entered an IT company named Keseya based out of Miami, Florida. Following the attack on the company, the hackers breached Kaseya’s clients and associated managed service providers (MSPs). The MSPs employ software created by Kaseya, which automatically installs updates on client networks. This auto-updating mechanism enabled the hackers to install ransomware on thousands of the company’s clients. Utilizing this pre-made infrastructure, the Russians hacked over 1,500 other companies in 17 different countries. According to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, the government agencies were not able to respond to assist the victims due to the massive size of the attack. Responsibility was claimed by the cybercriminal group called REvil, who stated a demand for $70 million in exchange for a decryption key to end the ransomware attack. REvi...

China and Russia have been quickly building and deploying both ground and space-based weapons intended for destroying satellites. At the same time, China and Russia have been pressing the United States to agree to a treaty prohibiting anti-satellite weapons . The United States possesses a significant number of critical space-based military capabilities . When viewed from the outside, the treaty sounds ideal. Nobody desires a space-based arms race. These space-based capabilities include communications, missile defense, intelligence, and other satellites. If the U.S. is to be successful in stopping aggression of authoritarian regimes, Washington needs to prevent being drawn into international treaties that other competing powers have no intention of respecting or following. Beijing and Moscow have submitted The Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space and of the Threat or Use of Force Against Outer Space Objects (PPWT) to the United Nations. The PPWT obligates ...

The realm of cybersecurity has become critically important in recent years. The ability of both state and non-state actors to cripple or damage economic and civil infrastructure through cyberattacks constitutes a growing threat. Nations and other types of actors have been sharpening and honing their abilities to conduct these attacks on the United States and the international community. In 2016, cyber attacks and cybercrime alone created more than $100 billion in damages to the United States. China and Russia have emerged as leading players in the realm of cyber attacks , being responsible for significant damages and losses in the United States, as well as internationally. Experts in cybersecurity and asymmetric warfare have indicated this threat has grown increasingly potent and serious with each passing year. Cybersecurity researchers predict that cyberattacks will cost the United States more than $6 trillion in damages within only a few years. In addition to direct economic costs...

  While much of the U.S. focused on its upcoming Presidential election in October, the EU and U.S. sanctioned Russian leadership for numerous offenses. On August 20th, Russian dissident, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned with the chemical weapon Novichok. Navalny fell ill on a Russian domestic flight and was later transferred to a German hospital to recover. Novichok, the military-grade chemical nerve agent, is only accessible to the Russian government, according to Navalny, and reported by correspondents on international news . EU Formally Sanctions Six Russian Leaders for its Role in Poisoning Dissident In response, the EU revealed sanctions on October 15th in the form of asset freezes and travel bans for six senior Russian officials, including Aleksander Bortnikov, Russian Director of its Federal Security Service. Others designated include senior Kremlin officials, Sergei Kiriyenko and Andrei Yarin, and Presidential representative, Sergei Menyaylo, demonstrating the EU believes that...

  Russian anti-corruption activist and political opposition leader Alexei Navalny was recently poisoned by a rare nerve agent while residing in Russia. Alexei survived, and his health has recovered enough for him to shed light on what happened to the rest of the world. Alexei is demanding that Russia be held accountable for its corruption, human rights abuses, and the ignoring of the rule of law. Alexei posted a blog post describing the attempted assassination by Russia, and is demanding a call to action in response to the Russian government’s corruption, chemical weapons use, and terror tactics. The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) treaty of 1993 signaled the international community’s stance against the use of chemical weapons, but so far has not been effective in deterring its illegal usage. According to leading researchers on Russian foreign policy Russia’s use of chemical weapons, such as in the case of this failed assassination attempt, highlights the failure of the CWC a...

Every American Citizen, every large corporation, and every government agency down to the local level has in some way been affected by cyber hacking. Today, we are aware of the threat personally and we go out of our way to protect our personal information. Still, that doesn’t mean someone we do business with that has our personal data won’t fall victim to a cyber hack or attack. Regardless of what you believe the cyber hacking risks are, it is a present danger. It’s a reality. We’ve all heard by the media that Russia hacked our last presidential election , and while there is a lot of dispute about what actually happened in the Democratic National Committee hack, the incident does show the vulnerability to our most sacred trust – our free and fair elections. We don’t need to enumerate the endless times our personal financial data or at least our personal information has gotten into the hands of cybercriminals – we all remember the big Target Stores hack and the Experian Credit Agency ...

It appears that The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has agreed, at least in spirit, that space is a military ‘operational domain’ and decisions in the future should be made accordingly. This is a sharp contrast to the thinking decades ago, where European Space Agency’s (ESA) 22-members had stated that space ‘must’ remain non-militarized, even as the U.S. and Russians continued to covertly plan for the future wars in space, or use of space assets for dual purpose – instruments of experimentation and weapons of war. What changed? After all, the Russians and Americans both participated along with Europe, Japan and other nations in the ISS (International Space Station). Most all developed and even some less-than-developed nations have communication satellites. China has a robust space program, India too. After the cold-war with Russia we learned of secret and not so secret U.S. and Russian space weapons projects. Since then both China and India have downed their own satellites ...

Recent events have tilted the Middle East in favor of growing Russian hegemony. As Putin continues to employ his power-grab strategies, he is successfully making inroads for Russian influence in the Middle East and Arab world. This emerging trend has been given space for growth as a result of a different world power shifting its influence away from the region. The U.S is withdrawing its physical presence from Syria and other areas in the Middle East, and as a consequence a power vacuum has emerged. Instead of many Middle Eastern countries or groups of people having greater influence over their own political futures as previous critics of U.S. foriegn policy might hope for, U.S. withdrawal is producing the opposite. Most of these smaller countries lack the capability to stand up to the influence of more powerful world and regional players who have an interest in the region. Between Iran, Russia, and Turkey, influence in the Arab world previously exerted by the U.S. is being more ...

It's no secret Vladimir Putin wants Russia to be the great superpower again it was before the collapse of the USSR. It's also obvious that Putin wants to maintain relevance on the world stage. Russia is energy rich, politically astute, and has a reputation for a strong military - thus, a force to be reckoned with. It uses this power to its advantage across the globe as The Washington Times explains . Russia's Middle East Meddling In the Middle East Russia is working to establish stronger ties with Iran, assisting with a missile defense system (S-300) to prevent any future potential US strike. Meanwhile, Iran continues using proxy terrorist strategies across the Middle East as a method to serve its political will. And, of course, we know all too well what Russia has been doing in Syria propping up the Assad regime, while claiming to defend their Russian military port, now Russia has an airbase in Syria too. Today, Syria has been all but destroyed leaving a humanitarian d...