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The Power Vertical

The Power Vertical is a blog and podcast for Russia wonks and Kremlin watchers by Brian Whitmore. It covers emerging and developing trends in Russian politics, shining a spotlight on the high-stakes power struggles, machinations, and clashing interests that shape Kremlin policy today.

Host and Eurasia Center Senior Fellow Brian Whitmore invites guest experts to deliver their insights and analysis in this weekly podcast. The Atlantic Council and the Charles T. McDowell Center for Global Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington co-sponsor this production.

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The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Content

UkraineAlert

Jan 20, 2015

Russian Militia in Ukraine Says It’s Building an Air Force: Is that Quixotic or Dangerous?

By New Atlanticist

The Kremlin-loyalist Russian TV station LifeNews told the story January 17 that the Lugansk People’s Republic, the mini-state propped up by Russia in Ukraine’s Lugansk province, is establishing an air force. The station played just a minute of video showing men in winter military uniforms rolling a 1960s-era two-seat jet trainer—marked with the red star […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 20, 2015

Russia Sends New Army Troops Into Ukraine War, Kyiv Says

By James Rupert

Intensified Combat and a Wave of Bombings May Be Kremlin Pushing Ukraine to Accept New Talks Russia reportedly has sent two battalions of troops into Ukraine’s Donbas region to strengthen its forces there amid a week-long spike in combat. At a minimum, Russia’s injection of new regular troops, tanks and rockets is a warning to […]

Russia Ukraine
Gen. Martin Dempsey, Jan. 6, 2012

NATOSource

Jan 20, 2015

Dempsey: Terrorism and Russian Aggression Threaten European Security

By Lisa Ferdinando, DoD News

Terrorism and Russian aggression are two “very distinct threats” to European security, according to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Europe & Eurasia Italy
Russia-Belarus military exercise Zapad, Sept. 26, 2013

NATOSource

Jan 16, 2015

Russia Could Soon Run Multiple Ukraine-Sized Operations: US General

By Adrian Croft, Reuters

Russia is working to develop within a few years the capability to threaten several neighbors at once on the scale of its present operation in Ukraine, a senior American general said.

NATO Northern Europe

UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2015

Four Months after Ukraine-Russia Truce, Putin Can’t Risk Implementing It

By James Rupert

The War at Donetsk’s Airport is On—And Peace Talks Planned for This Week Are Off The intensified battle between Ukraine and Russia for the airport in Donetsk seems likely to be a fight over this month’s military message in the Donbas war. Russia’s army veterans, fighting as mercenaries, form the bulk of the anti-Ukraine force […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Jan 16, 2015

Ukraine’s Dignified Warrior: Nadiya Savchenko Confronts the Kremlin

By Irena Chalupa

Paratrooper, Pilot, Parliamentarian, She Pressures Moscow with Hunger Strike in Prison In seven months since a Russian-backed militia in southeastern Ukraine captured Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian paratrooper and pilot has become one of her country’s biggest icons in its war against the Russian invasion. Her captors spirited her illegally into Russia, held her in isolation, […]

Russia Ukraine
Russian Mig-31, May 29, 2013

NATOSource

Jan 14, 2015

Russian Troops Stationed Near Finnish Border as Putin Begins Move on Arctic

By Damien Sharkov, Newsweek

A detachment of about 800 servicemen from Russia’s Northern Fleet has been stationed in the Russian town of Alakurtti, Murmansk region, just 50km from the Finnish border, part of a large-scale expansion of Russian military facilities in the country’s northwest

Europe & Eurasia Northern Europe

Event Recap

Jan 14, 2015

Discussion on the Political and Security Prospects of Central Asia

By Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center

On Tuesday, January 13th, the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center hosted an off-the-record, small breakfast discussion on Central Asia with Ambassador Miroslav Jenča, Special Representative of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General and Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, one of the leading experts on the region. The event was introduced […]

China Russia

UkraineAlert

Jan 13, 2015

Rajan Menon: For Security, Ukraine Needs an Army, the West—and China

Author of New Book on Ukraine Conflict Urges Careful Priorities for Kyiv Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Rajan Menon, chairman of political science at the City College of New York, has just co-authored a new book, Conflict in Ukraine, with Eugene Rumer of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The book, to be published in March […]

Russia Ukraine
US and Polish Paratroopers, April 23, 2014

NATOSource

Jan 13, 2015

SACEUR: NATO Looking at Beefing Up Baltic Exercises

By Wiktor Szary, Reuters

NATO’s top military commander, General Philip Breedlove, said on Tuesday the defense alliance was looking at beefing up its exercises in the Baltic Sea region in response to a surge in Russian military maneuvers there late last year.

NATO Russia

Experts