Category Archives: Russia

An elderly woman walks in the southern Ukrainian village of Arkhanhelske, outside Kherson, on Nov. 3. The Russians occupied the village until recently. Now Ukrainian forces are moving into villages where the Russians left. The Russians said they completed their withdrawal from Kherson on Friday, marking a major victory for Ukraine. Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

An elderly woman walks in the southern Ukrainian village of Arkhanhelske, outside Kherson, on Nov. 3. The Russians occupied the village until recently. Now Ukrainian forces are moving into villages where the Russians left. The Russians said they completed their withdrawal from Kherson on Friday, marking a major victory for Ukraine.

Russia announced Friday morning that it has withdrawn all its troops from the key southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, marking another big setback for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

This is the latest military success for Ukraine since it launched a major offensive more than two months ago, giving it the clear momentum on the battlefield.

Yet President Biden and his top advisers are now nudging Ukraine to show a greater willingness to consider peace talks with Russia.

"There has to be a mutual recognition that military victory is probably, in the true sense of the word, not achievable through military means, and therefore you need to turn to other means," Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.

"When there's an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it," Milley told the Economic Club of New York.

The general is among several administration officials to make remarks along these lines in recent days. U.S. officials say they are not forcing Ukraine into talks, or dictating any potential outcome.

At a news conference Wednesday, President Biden reiterated his position that the United States is "not going to tell [Ukraine] what they have to do."

The president also said Russia's withdrawal from Kherson is evidence of "some real problems with the Russian military."

He went on to say that the warring sides may recalibrate their positions over the winter, when the fighting is expected to slow. And, Biden added, "it remains to be seen whether or not there'll be a judgment made as to whether or not Ukraine is prepared to compromise with Russia."

U.S. officials acknowledge that neither Ukraine nor Russia appear ready to hold serious negotiations. But the Americans would like Ukraine to ease its adamant opposition to talks with Russia, believing negotiations will be required at some point.

Russia and Ukraine held a few brief rounds of talks shortly after Russia invaded in February. But the discussions went nowhere, quickly broke down, and there's been no sign they're about to restart.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week repeated the his conditions before negotiations could take place. He said all Russian forces must leave Ukraine, Russia must pay damages caused by the war, Moscow must punish war criminals, and there must be guarantees that Russia will never invade again.

"We have proposed negotiations numerous times, to which we always received crazy Russian responses, terrorist attacks, shellings or blackmail," the Ukrainian president said.

When Russia annexed four Ukrainian regions in September, Zelenskyy said he would never negotiate with Putin.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Wednesday that Russia was withdrawing its forces from the key southern city of Kherson. The Defense Ministry said Friday that the pullout was complete. Shoigu is shown here attending an Oct. 28 meeting outside Moscow. Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Wednesday that Russia was withdrawing its forces from the key southern city of Kherson. The Defense Ministry said Friday that the pullout was complete. Shoigu is shown here attending an Oct. 28 meeting outside Moscow.

"We will negotiate with the next Russian president," he said.

Zelenskyy made no mention of Putin in his most recent remarks, and some observers interpreted this as a slight shift in Ukraine's position, even if it wasn't stated explicitly.

Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said Russia is "ready for negotiations, taking into consideration the realities formed at a current moment."

However, she did not offer any compromises that Russia might be willing to make.

Ukrainians say this follows a familiar pattern, with Russia offering to negotiate or take a pause when it is doing poorly and looking for a chance to regroup militarily.

Kherson was one of Russia's few successes in the war. Russian forces faced virtually no resistance in the first days of the war as they captured the city on the Dnipro River.

This was seen as part of a broader Russian effort to take control of Ukraine's entire Black Sea coast, which is used to export the country's agricultural products, the foundation of its economy.

Now the Russians have left Kherson without a fight, though the move was clearly in response to Ukrainian forces that had been steadily advancing toward the city for the past two months.

Analysts say no such move could be made without Putin's approval, though the Russian leader has yet to comment publicly.

This is the third major retreat by Russian troops this year.

A large Russian force approached the capital Kyiv, the country's largest city, in the first days of the war in February, but pulled back a month later at the end of March.

The Russians also neared the second largest city, Kharkiv, in the north, before pulling back in May.

Despite Russia's withdrawal announcement, Ukrainians are still proceeding cautiously, wary of any possible Russian traps.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian troops have reclaimed more than 40 villages in the southern part of the country as they move toward Kherson. However, neither Zelenskyy nor other top officials have commented on the status of Kherson city itself.

On social media, meanwhile, many Ukrainians were already celebrating.

In several villages, videos showed eldering residents, who had been under Russian occupation for months, greeting the Ukrainian soldiers with hugs, kisses and tears.

One video showed a young woman playing a violin in the street as soldiers drove up to her.

And a photo from Kherson showed a Ukrainian flag raised at the city's main government building. There was no word on who raised it, though plenty of speculation that it was the work of a Ukrainian civilian who had remained in the city during the Russian occupation.

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Russia retreats from Kherson. Why is the U.S. nudging Ukraine on peace ...

1. Blast in Poland shows how easily Russia's war could tip into wider conflict with NATO  CNN
2. Russian-made missile kills 2 in Poland, official says; Half of Kyiv loses power after missile strikes  CNBC
3. US and Russia clash over responsibility for missile strike  The Associated Press - en Espaol
4. Russia under fire over Ukraine missile attacks, Poland deaths  Al Jazeera English
5. Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Despite reports Ukrainian defense likely caused fatal explosion, NATO blames Russia  The Washington Post
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Blast in Poland shows how easily Russia's war could tip into wider conflict with NATO - CNN

Russia (Russian: , tr. Rossiya, pronounced[rsij]) or the Russian Federation,[c] is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, covering over 17,098,246 square kilometres (6,601,670sqmi), and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across eleven time zones sharing land boundaries with fourteen countries,[15] more than any other country but China.[d] It is the ninth-most populous country in the world and the most populous country in Europe, with a population of 146 million. The country's capital and largest city is Moscow, the largest city entirely within Europe. Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-largest city. Other major urban areas include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan.

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The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. The medieval state of Kievan Rus' arose in the 9th century, and in 988 adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the Grand Duchy of Moscow growing to become the Tsardom of Russia. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, the third-largest empire in history. The monarchy was abolished following the Russian Revolution in 1917, and the Russian SFSR became the world's first constitutionally socialist state. Following a civil war, the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union with three other republics, as its largest and the principal constituent. The country underwent a period of rapid industrialisation at the expense of millions of lives. The Soviet Union played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II, and was a superpower and rival to the United States during the Cold War. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite and the launching of the first human into space.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly independent Russian SFSR renamed itself the Russian Federation. In the aftermath of the constitutional crisis of 1993, a new constitution was adopted, and Russia has since been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Since his election in 2000, Vladimir Putin has dominated Russia's political system and Russia has experienced democratic backsliding, shifting into an authoritarian state. Russia ranks high in international measurements of standard of living, household income and education; having universal healthcare and a free university education. However, Russia also ranks low in measurements of human rights, freedom of the press, economic freedom, and has high levels of perceived corruption.

The Russian economy is the world's ninth-largest by nominal GDP and the sixth-largest by PPP. It has the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, with the fifth-highest military expenditure. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the world's largest, and it is among the leading producers of oil and natural gas globally. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G20, the SCO, BRICS, the APEC, the OSCE and the WTO, as well as the leading member of the CIS, the CSTO, and the EAEU. Russia is home to 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The name Russia is derived from Rus', a medieval state populated primarily by the East Slavs.[16] However, the proper name[which?] became more prominent in later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants "Rus land".[17] This state is denoted as Kievan Rus' after its capital city by modern historiography. The name Rus' itself comes from the early medieval Rus' people, a group of Norse merchants and warriors who relocated from across the Baltic Sea and founded a state centred on Novgorod that later became Kievan Rus'.[18]

A Medieval Latin version of the name Rus' was Ruthenia, which was used as one of several designations for East Slavic and Eastern Orthodox regions, and commonly as a designation for the lands of Rus'.[19] The current name of the country, (Rossiya), comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Rus', Rossa spelled (Rosa pronounced[rosia]) in Modern Greek.[20] The standard way to refer to the citizens of Russia is "Russians" in English.[21] There are two words in Russian which are commonly translated into English as "Russians" one is "" (russkiye), which most often refers to ethnic Russians and the other is "" (rossiyane), which refers to citizens of Russia, regardless of ethnicity.[22]

The first human settlement on Russia dates back to the Oldowan period in the early Lower Paleolithic. About 2 million years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated to the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia.[23] Flint tools, some 1.5 million years old, have been discovered in the North Caucasus.[24] Radiocarbon dated specimens from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains estimate the oldest Denisovan specimen lived 195122,700 years ago.[25] Fossils of "Denny", an archaic human hybrid that was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan, and lived some 90,000 years ago, was also found within the latter cave.[26] Russia was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals, from about 45,000 years ago, found in Mezmaiskaya cave.[27]

The first trace of an early modern human in Russia dates back to 45,000 years, in western Siberia.[28] The discovery of high concentration cultural remains of anatomically modern humans, from at least 40,000 years ago, was found at Kostyonki and Borshchyovo,[29] and at Sungir, dating back to 34,600 years agoboth, respectively in western Russia.[30] Humans reached Arctic Russia at least 40,000 years ago, in Mamontovaya Kurya.[31]

The Kurgan hypothesis places the Volga-Dnieper region of southern Russia and Ukraine as the urheimat of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.[33] Early Indo-European migrations from the PonticCaspian steppe spread Yamnaya ancestry and Indo-European languages across large parts of Eurasia.[34][35] Nomadic pastoralism developed in the PonticCaspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic.[36] Remnants of these steppe civilizations were discovered in places such as Ipatovo,[36] Sintashta,[37] Arkaim,[38] and Pazyryk,[39] which bear the earliest known traces of horses in warfare.[37] The genetic makeup of speakers of the Uralic language family in northern Europe was shaped by migration from Siberia that began at least 3,500 years ago.[40] In classical antiquity, the Pontic-Caspian Steppe was known as Scythia.[41] In late 8th century BCE, Ancient Greek traders brought classical civilization to the trade emporiums in Tanais and Phanagoria.[42]

In the 3rd to 4th centuries CE, the Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia, which was later overrun by Huns.[43] Between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE, the Bosporan Kingdom, which was a Hellenistic polity that succeeded the Greek colonies,[44] was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars.[45] The Khazars, who were of Turkic origin, ruled the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas until the 10th century.[46] After them came the Pechenegs who created a large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by the Cumans and the Kipchaks.[47]

The ancestors of Russians are among the Slavic tribes that separated from the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who appeared in the northeastern part of Europe ca. 1500years ago.[48] The East Slavs gradually settled western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov. From the 7th century onwards, the East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in western Russia,[49] and slowly but peacefully assimilated the native Finnic peoples.[43]

The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians, the Vikings who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas.[50] According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from the Rus' people, named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882, his successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev, which had been previously paying tribute to the Khazars.[43] Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar Khaganate,[51] and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.[52][53]

In the 10th to 11th centuries, Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (9801015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (10191054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium, and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.[43] The age of feudalism and decentralization had come, marked by constant in-fighting between members of the Rurik dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, the Novgorod Republic in the north, and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west.[43] By the 12th century, Kiev lost its pre-eminence and Kievan Rus' had fragmented into different principalities.[54] Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky sacked Kiev in 1169 and made Vladimir his base,[54] leading to political power being shifted to the north-east.[43]

Kievan Rus' finally fell to the Mongol invasion of 12371240, which resulted in the sacking of Kiev and other cities, as well as the death of a major part of the population.[43] The invaders, later known as Tatars, formed the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the Russian principalities and ruled the southern and central expanses of Russia for over two centuries.[55] Only the Novgorod Republic escaped Mongol occupation after it agreed to pay tribute.[43]

Galicia-Volhynia was eventually absorbed by Lithuania and Poland,[43] while the Novgorod Republic and Vladimir-Suzdal, two regions on the periphery of Kiev, established the basis for the modern Russian nation.[43] Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240,[56] as well as the Germanic crusaders in the Battle of the Ice in 1242.[57]

The destruction of Kievan Rus' saw the eventual rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, initially a part of Vladimir-Suzdal.[58]:1120 While still under the domain of the Mongol-Tatars and with their connivance, Moscow began to assert its influence in the region in the early 14th century,[59] gradually becoming the leading force in the "gathering of the Russian lands".[60] When the seat of the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church moved to Moscow in 1325, its influence increased.[61] Moscow's last rival, the Novgorod Republic, prospered as the chief fur trade centre and the easternmost port of the Hanseatic League.[62]

Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow, the united army of Russian principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.[43] Moscow gradually absorbed its parent duchy and surrounding principalities, including formerly strong rivals such as Tver and Novgorod.[60]

IvanIII ("the Great") finally threw off the control of the Golden Horde and consolidated the whole of northern Rus' under Moscow's dominion, and was the first Russian ruler to take the title "Grand Duke of all Rus'". After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire. IvanIII married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor ConstantineXI, and made the Byzantine double-headed eagle his own, and eventually Russia's, coat-of-arms.[60] Vasili III completed the task of uniting all of Russia by annexing the last few independent Russian states in the early 16th century.[63]

In development of the Third Rome ideas, the grand duke IvanIV ("the Terrible") was officially crowned the first tsar of Russia in 1547. The tsar promulgated a new code of laws (Sudebnik of 1550), established the first Russian feudal representative body (the Zemsky Sobor), revamped the military, curbed the influence of the clergy, and reorganised local government.[60] During his long reign, Ivan nearly doubled the already large Russian territory by annexing the three Tatar khanates: Kazan and Astrakhan along the Volga,[64] and the Khanate of Sibir in southwestern Siberia. Ultimately, by the end of the 16th century, Russia expanded east of the Ural Mountains.[65] However, the Tsardom was weakened by the long and unsuccessful Livonian War against the coalition of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (later the united PolishLithuanian Commonwealth), the Kingdom of Sweden, and DenmarkNorway for access to the Baltic coast and sea trade.[66] In 1572, an invading army of Crimean Tatars were thoroughly defeated in the crucial Battle of Molodi.[67]

The death of Ivan's sons marked the end of the ancient Rurik dynasty in 1598, and in combination with the disastrous famine of 16011603, led to a civil war, the rule of pretenders, and foreign intervention during the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century.[68] The PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, taking advantage, occupied parts of Russia, extending into the capital Moscow.[69] In 1612, the Poles were forced to retreat by the Russian volunteer corps, led by merchant Kuzma Minin and prince Dmitry Pozharsky.[70] The Romanov dynasty acceded to the throne in 1613 by the decision of the Zemsky Sobor, and the country started its gradual recovery from the crisis.[71]

Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of the Cossacks.[72] In 1654, the Ukrainian leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Russian tsar, Alexis; whose acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War. Ultimately, Ukraine was split along the Dnieper, leaving the eastern part, (Left-bank Ukraine and Kiev) under Russian rule.[73] In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonisation of vast Siberia continued, hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along the Siberian River Routes, and by the mid-17th century, there were Russian settlements in eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, and on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.[72] In 1648, Semyon Dezhnyov became the first European to navigate through the Bering Strait.[74]

Under Peter the Great, Russia was proclaimed an empire in 1721, and established itself as one of the European great powers. Ruling from 1682 to 1725, Peter defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War (17001721), securing Russia's access to the sea and sea trade. In 1703, on the Baltic Sea, Peter founded Saint Petersburg as Russia's new capital. Throughout his rule, sweeping reforms were made, which brought significant Western European cultural influences to Russia.[75] The reign of PeterI's daughter Elizabeth in 17411762 saw Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War (17561763). During the conflict, Russian troops overran East Prussia, reaching Berlin.[76] However, upon Elizabeth's death, all these conquests were returned to the Kingdom of Prussia by pro-Prussian PeterIII of Russia.[77]

CatherineII ("the Great"), who ruled in 17621796, presided over the Russian Age of Enlightenment. She extended Russian political control over the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth and annexed most of its territories into Russia, making it the most populous country in Europe.[78] In the south, after the successful Russo-Turkish Wars against the Ottoman Empire, Catherine advanced Russia's boundary to the Black Sea, by dissolving the Crimean Khanate, and annexing Crimea.[79] As a result of victories over Qajar Iran through the Russo-Persian Wars, by the first half of the 19th century, Russia also conquered the Caucasus.[80] Catherine's successor, her son Paul, was unstable and focused predominantly on domestic issues.[81] Following his short reign, Catherine's strategy was continued with AlexanderI's (18011825) wresting of Finland from the weakened Sweden in 1809,[82] and of Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812.[83] In North America, the Russians became the first Europeans to reach and colonise Alaska.[84] In 18031806, the first Russian circumnavigation was made.[85] In 1820, a Russian expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica.[86]

During the Napoleonic Wars, Russia joined alliances with various European powers, and fought against France. The French invasion of Russia at the height of Napoleon's power in 1812 reached Moscow, but eventually failed miserably as the obstinate resistance in combination with the bitterly cold Russian winter led to a disastrous defeat of invaders, in which the pan-European Grande Arme faced utter destruction. Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, the Imperial Russian Army ousted Napoleon and drove throughout Europe in the War of the Sixth Coalition, ultimately entering Paris.[87] AlexanderI controlled Russia's delegation at the Congress of Vienna, which defined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe.[88]

The officers who pursued Napoleon into Western Europe brought ideas of liberalism back to Russia, and attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt of 1825.[89] At the end of the conservative reign of Nicholas I (18251855), a zenith period of Russia's power and influence in Europe, was disrupted by defeat in the Crimean War.[90] Nicholas's successor AlexanderII (18551881) enacted significant changes throughout the country, including the emancipation reform of 1861.[91] These reforms spurred industrialisation, and modernised the Imperial Russian Army, which liberated much of the Balkans from Ottoman rule in the aftermath of the 18771878 Russo-Turkish War.[92] During most of the 19th and early 20th century, Russia and Britain colluded over Afghanistan and its neighboring territories in Central and South Asia; the rivalry between the two major European empires came to be known as the Great Game.[93]

The late 19th century saw the rise of various socialist movements in Russia. AlexanderII was assassinated in 1881 by revolutionary terrorists.[94] The reign of his son AlexanderIII (18811894) was less liberal but more peaceful.[95] Under last Russian emperor, NicholasII (18941917), the Revolution of 1905 was triggered by the failure of the humiliating Russo-Japanese War.[96] The uprising was put down, but the government was forced to concede major reforms (Russian Constitution of 1906), including granting freedoms of speech and assembly, the legalisation of political parties, and the creation of an elected legislative body, the State Duma.[97]

In 1914, Russia entered World WarI in response to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Russia's ally Serbia,[98] and fought across multiple fronts while isolated from its Triple Entente allies.[99] In 1916, the Brusilov Offensive of the Imperial Russian Army almost completely destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Army.[100] However, the already-existing public distrust of the regime was deepened by the rising costs of war, high casualties, and rumors of corruption and treason. All this formed the climate for the Russian Revolution of 1917, carried out in two major acts.[101] In early 1917, Nicholas II was forced to abdicate; he and his family were imprisoned and later executed in Yekaterinburg during the Russian Civil War.[102] The monarchy was replaced by a shaky coalition of political parties that declared itself the Provisional Government.[103] The Provisional Government proclaimed the Russian Republic in September. On 19 January [O.S. 6 January], 1918, the Russian Constituent Assembly declared Russia a democratic federal republic (thus ratifying the Provisional Government's decision). The next day the Constituent Assembly was dissolved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.[101]

An alternative socialist establishment co-existed, the Petrograd Soviet, wielding power through the democratically elected councils of workers and peasants, called Soviets. The rule of the new authorities only aggravated the crisis in the country instead of resolving it, and eventually, the October Revolution, led by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government and gave full governing power to the Soviets, leading to the creation of the world's first socialist state.[101] The Russian Civil War broke out between the anti-communist White movement and the new Soviet regime with its Red Army.[104] In the aftermath of signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that concluded hostilities with the Central Powers of World WarI; Bolshevist Russia surrendered most of its western territories, which hosted 34% of its population, 54% of its industries, 32% of its agricultural land, and roughly 90% of its coal mines.[105]

The Allied powers launched an unsuccessful military intervention in support of anti-communist forces.[106] In the meantime, both the Bolsheviks and White movement carried out campaigns of deportations and executions against each other, known respectively as the Red Terror and White Terror.[107] By the end of the violent civil war, Russia's economy and infrastructure were heavily damaged, and as many as 10 million perished during the war, mostly civilians.[108] Millions became White migrs,[109] and the Russian famine of 19211922 claimed up to fivemillion victims.[110]

On 30 December 1922, Lenin and his aides formed the Soviet Union, by joining the Russian SFSR into a single state with the Byelorussian, Transcaucasian, and Ukrainian republics.[111] Eventually internal border changes and annexations during World War II created a union of 15 republics; the largest in size and population being the Russian SFSR, which dominated the union for its entire history politically, culturally, and economically.[112] Following Lenin's death in 1924, a troika was designated to take charge. Eventually Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, managed to suppress all opposition factions and consolidate power in his hands to become the country's dictator by the 1930s.[113] Leon Trotsky, the main proponent of world revolution, was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929,[114] and Stalin's idea of Socialism in One Country became the official line.[115] The continued internal struggle in the Bolshevik party culminated in the Great Purge.[116]

Under Stalin's leadership, the government launched a command economy, industrialisation of the largely rural country, and collectivisation of its agriculture. During this period of rapid economic and social change, millions of people were sent to penal labor camps, including many political convicts for their suspected or real opposition to Stalin's rule;[117] and millions were deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union.[118] The transitional disorganisation of the country's agriculture, combined with the harsh state policies and a drought, led to the Soviet famine of 19321933; which killed up to 8.7 million.[119] The Soviet Union, ultimately, made the costly transformation from a largely agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse within a short span of time.[120]

The Soviet Union entered World War II on 17 September 1939 with its invasion of Poland,[121] in accordance with a secret protocol within the MolotovRibbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany.[122] The Soviet Union later invaded Finland,[123] and occupied and annexed the Baltic states,[124] as well as parts of Romania.[125]:9195 On 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union,[126] opening the Eastern Front, the largest theater of World WarII.[127]:7

Eventually, some 5 million Red Army troops were captured by the Nazis;[128]:272 the latter deliberately starved to death or otherwise killed 3.3million Soviet POWs, and a vast number of civilians, as the "Hunger Plan" sought to fulfill Generalplan Ost.[129]:175186 Although the Wehrmacht had considerable early success, their attack was halted in the Battle of Moscow.[130] Subsequently, the Germans were dealt major defeats first at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 19421943,[131] and then in the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943.[132] Another German failure was the Siege of Leningrad, in which the city was fully blockaded on land between 1941 and 1944 by German and Finnish forces, and suffered starvation and more than a million deaths, but never surrendered.[133] Soviet forces steamrolled through Eastern and Central Europe in 19441945 and captured Berlin in May 1945.[134] In August 1945, the Red Army invaded Manchuria and ousted the Japanese from Northeast Asia, contributing to the Allied victory over Japan.[135]

The 19411945 period of World WarII is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.[136] The Soviet Union, along with the United States, the United Kingdom and China were considered the Big Four of Allied powers in World War II, and later became the Four Policemen, which was the foundation of the United Nations Security Council.[137]:27 During the war, Soviet civilian and military death were about 2627 million,[138] accounting for about half of all World WarII casualties.[139]:295 The Soviet economy and infrastructure suffered massive devastation, which caused the Soviet famine of 19461947.[140] However, at the expense of a large sacrifice, the Soviet Union emerged as a global superpower.[141]

After World War II, parts of Eastern and Central Europe, including East Germany and eastern parts of Austria were occupied by Red Army according to the Potsdam Conference.[142] Dependent communist governments were installed in the Eastern Bloc satellite states.[143] After becoming the world's second nuclear power,[144] the Soviet Union established the Warsaw Pact alliance,[145] and entered into a struggle for global dominance, known as the Cold War, with the rivaling United States and NATO.[146] After Stalin's death in 1953 and a short period of collective rule, the new leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin and launched the policy of de-Stalinization, releasing many political prisoners from the Gulag labor camps.[147] The general easement of repressive policies became known later as the Khrushchev Thaw.[148] At the same time, Cold War tensions reached its peak when the two rivals clashed over the deployment of the United States Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Soviet missiles in Cuba.[149]

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik1, thus starting the Space Age.[150] Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, aboard the Vostok1 manned spacecraft on 12 April 1961.[151] Following the ousting of Khrushchev in 1964, another period of collective rule ensued, until Leonid Brezhnev became the leader. The era of the 1970s and the early 1980s was later designated as the Era of Stagnation. The 1965 Kosygin reform aimed for partial decentralisation of the Soviet economy.[152] In 1979, after a communist-led revolution in Afghanistan, Soviet forces invaded the country, ultimately starting the SovietAfghan War.[153] In May 1988, the Soviets started to withdraw from Afghanistan, due to international opposition, persistent anti-Soviet guerrilla warfare, and a lack of support by Soviet citizens.[154]

From 1985 onwards, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who sought to enact liberal reforms in the Soviet system, introduced the policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to end the period of economic stagnation and to democratise the government.[155] This, however, led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements across the country.[156] Prior to 1991, the Soviet economy was the world's second-largest, but during its final years, it went into a crisis.[157]

By 1991, economic and political turmoil began to boil over as the Baltic states chose to secede from the Soviet Union.[158] On 17 March, a referendum was held, in which the vast majority of participating citizens voted in favour of changing the Soviet Union into a renewed federation.[159] In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin became the first directly elected president in Russian history when he was elected president of the Russian SFSR.[160] In August 1991, a coup d'tat attempt by members of Gorbachev's government, directed against Gorbachev and aimed at preserving the Soviet Union, instead led to the end of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[161] On 25 December 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, along with contemporary Russia, fourteen other post-Soviet states emerged.[162]

The economic and political collapse of the Soviet Union led Russia into a deep and prolonged depression. During and after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, wide-ranging reforms including privatisation and market and trade liberalisation were undertaken, including radical changes along the lines of "shock therapy".[163] The privatisation largely shifted control of enterprises from state agencies to individuals with inside connections in the government, which led to the rise of the infamous Russian oligarchs.[164] Many of the newly rich moved billions in cash and assets outside of the country in an enormous capital flight.[165] The depression of the economy led to the collapse of social servicesthe birth rate plummeted while the death rate skyrocketed,[166][167] and millions plunged into poverty;[168] while extreme corruption,[169] as well as criminal gangs and organised crime rose significantly.[170]

In late 1993, tensions between Yeltsin and the Russian parliament culminated in a constitutional crisis which ended violently through military force. During the crisis, Yeltsin was backed by Western governments, and over 100 people were killed.[171] In December, a referendum was held and approved, which introduced a new constitution, giving the president enormous powers.[172] The 1990s were plagued by armed conflicts in the North Caucasus, both local ethnic skirmishes and separatist Islamist insurrections.[173] From the time Chechen separatists declared independence in the early 1990s, an intermittent guerrilla war was fought between the rebel groups and Russian forces.[174] Terrorist attacks against civilians were carried out by Chechen separatists, claiming the lives of thousands of Russian civilians.[e][175]

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia assumed responsibility for settling the latter's external debts.[176] In 1992, most consumer price controls were eliminated, causing extreme inflation and significantly devaluing the ruble.[177] High budget deficits coupled with increasing capital flight and inability to pay back debts, caused the 1998 Russian financial crisis, which resulted in a further GDP decline.[178]

In 1999, president Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned, handing the post to the recently appointed prime minister and his chosen successor, Vladimir Putin.[179] Putin then won the 2000 presidential election,[180] and defeated the Chechen insurgency in the Second Chechen War.[181] Putin won a second presidential term in 2004.[182] High oil prices and a rise in foreign investment saw the Russian economy and living standards improve significantly.[183] Putin's rule increased stability, while transforming Russia into an authoritarian state.[184] In 2008, Putin took the post of prime minister, while Dmitry Medvedev was elected president for one term, to hold onto power despite legal term limits;[185] this period has been described as a "tandemocracy."[186]

Following a diplomatic crisis with neighboring Georgia, the Russo-Georgian War took place during 112 August 2008, resulting in Russia imposing two unrecognised states in the occupied territories of Georgia. It was the first European war of the 21st century.[187] In 2014, following a revolution in Ukraine, Russia invaded and annexed the neighboring country's Crimean peninsula,[188] and contributed to the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine with direct intervention by Russian troops.[189] Russia steeply escalated the war by launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.[190] The invasion marked the largest conventional war in Europe since World WarII,[191] and was met with widespread international condemnation,[192] as well as expanded sanctions against Russia.[193] As a result, Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March,[194] and was suspended from the United Nations Human Rights Council in April.[195] In September 2022, Putin proclaimed the annexation of 15% of Ukraine's landmass in its Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, the largest seizure attempted in Europe since World WarII.[196]

Russia's vast landmass stretches over the easternmost part of Europe and the northernmost part of Asia.[197] It spans the northernmost edge of Eurasia; and has the world's fourth-longest coastline, of over 37,653km (23,396mi).[f][199] Russia lies between latitudes 41 and 82 N, and longitudes 19 E and 169 W, extending some 9,000km (5,600mi) east to west, and 2,500 to 4,000km (1,600 to 2,500mi) north to south.[200] Russia, by landmass, is larger than three continents,[g] and has the same surface area as Pluto.[201]

Russia has nine major mountain ranges, and they are found along the southernmost regions, which share a significant portion of the Caucasus Mountains (containing Mount Elbrus, which at 5,642m (18,510ft) is the highest peak in Russia and Europe);[6] the Altai and Sayan Mountains in Siberia; and in the East Siberian Mountains and the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East (containing Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which at 4,750m (15,584ft) is the highest active volcano in Eurasia).[202][203] The Ural Mountains, running north to south through the country's west, are rich in mineral resources, and form the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia.[204] The lowest point in Russia and Europe, is situated at the head of the Caspian Sea, where the Caspian Depression reaches some 29 metres (95.1ft) below sea level.[205]

Russia, as one of the world's only three countries bordering three oceans,[197] has links with a great number of seas.[h][206] Its major islands and archipelagos include Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island, the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin.[207][208] The Diomede Islands, administered by Russia and the United States, are just 3.8km (2.4mi) apart;[209] and Kunashir Island of the Kuril Islands is merely 20km (12.4mi) from Hokkaido, Japan.[2]

Russia, home of over 100,000 rivers,[197] has one of the world's largest surface water resources, with its lakes containing approximately one-quarter of the world's liquid fresh water.[203] Lake Baikal, the largest and most prominent among Russia's fresh water bodies, is the world's deepest, purest, oldest and most capacious fresh water lake, containing over one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water.[210] Ladoga and Onega in northwestern Russia are two of the largest lakes in Europe.[197] Russia is second only to Brazil by total renewable water resources.[211] The Volga in western Russia, widely regarded as Russia's national river, is the longest river in Europe; and forms the Volga Delta, the largest river delta in the continent.[212] The Siberian rivers of Ob, Yenisey, Lena, and Amur are among the world's longest rivers.[213]

The size of Russia and the remoteness of many of its areas from the sea result in the dominance of the humid continental climate throughout most of the country, except for the tundra and the extreme southwest. Mountain ranges in the south and east obstruct the flow of warm air masses from the Indian and Pacific oceans, while the European Plain spanning its west and north opens it to influence from the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.[214] Most of northwest Russia and Siberia have a subarctic climate, with extremely severe winters in the inner regions of northeast Siberia (mostly Sakha, where the Northern Pole of Cold is located with the record low temperature of 71.2C or 96.2F),[207] and more moderate winters elsewhere. Russia's vast coastline along the Arctic Ocean and the Russian Arctic islands have a polar climate.[214]

The coastal part of Krasnodar Krai on the Black Sea, most notably Sochi, and some coastal and interior strips of the North Caucasus possess a humid subtropical climate with mild and wet winters.[214] In many regions of East Siberia and the Russian Far East, winter is dry compared to summer; while other parts of the country experience more even precipitation across seasons. Winter precipitation in most parts of the country usually falls as snow. The westernmost parts of Kaliningrad Oblast and some parts in the south of Krasnodar Krai and the North Caucasus have an oceanic climate.[214] The region along the Lower Volga and Caspian Sea coast, as well as some southernmost slivers of Siberia, possess a semi-arid climate.[215]

Throughout much of the territory, there are only two distinct seasons, winter and summer; as spring and autumn are usually brief periods of change between extremely low and extremely high temperatures.[214] The coldest month is January (February on the coastline); the warmest is usually July. Great ranges of temperature are typical. In winter, temperatures get colder both from south to north and from west to east. Summers can be quite hot, even in Siberia.[216] Climate change in Russia is causing more frequent wildfires,[217] and thawing the country's large expanse of permafrost.[218]

Russia, owing to its gigantic size, has diverse ecosystems, including polar deserts, tundra, forest tundra, taiga, mixed and broadleaf forest, forest steppe, steppe, semi-desert, and subtropics.[219] About half of Russia's territory is forested,[6] and it has the world's largest forest reserves,[220] which sequester some of the world's highest amounts of carbon dioxide.[221]

Russian biodiversity includes 12,500 species of vascular plants, 2,200 species of bryophytes, about 3,000 species of lichens, 7,0009,000 species of algae, and 20,00025,000 species of fungi. Russian fauna is composed of 320 species of mammals, over 732 species of birds, 75 species of reptiles, about 30 species of amphibians, 343 species of freshwater fish (high endemism), approximately 1,500 species of saltwater fishes, 9 species of cyclostomata, and approximately 100150,000 invertebrates (high endemism).[219][222] Approximately 1,100 rare and endangered plant and animal species are included in the Russian Red Data Book.[219]

Russia's entirely natural ecosystems are conserved in nearly 15,000 specially protected natural territories of various statuses, occupying more than 10% of the country's total area.[219] They include 45 biosphere reserves,[223] 64 national parks, and 101 nature reserves.[224] Russia still has many ecosystems which are still untouched by man; mainly in the northern taiga areas, and the subarctic tundra of Siberia.[citation needed] Russia had a Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 9.02 in 2019, ranking 10th out of 172 countries; and the first ranked major nation globally.[225]

Russia, by constitution, is an asymmetric federal republic,[226] with a semi-presidential system, wherein the president is the head of state,[227] and the prime minister is the head of government.[6] It is structured as a multi-party representative democracy, with the federal government composed of three branches:[228]

The president is elected by popular vote for a six-year term and may be elected no more than twice.[232][i] Ministries of the government are composed of the premier and his deputies, ministers, and selected other individuals; all are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister (whereas the appointment of the latter requires the consent of the State Duma). United Russia is the dominant political party in Russia, and has been described as "big tent" and the "party of power".[234][235] Under the administrations of Vladimir Putin, Russia has experienced democratic backsliding,[236] and has become an authoritarian state[7] under a dictatorship,[237][238][239] with Putin's policies being referred to as Putinism.[240]

According to the constitution, the Russian Federation is composed of 89 federal subjects.[j] In 1993, when the new constitution was adopted, there were 89 federal subjects listed, but some were later merged. The federal subjects have equal representationtwo delegates eachin the Federation Council, the upper house of the Federal Assembly.[241] They do, however, differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy.[242] The federal districts of Russia were established by Putin in 2000 to facilitate central government control of the federal subjects.[243] Originally seven, currently there are eight federal districts, each headed by an envoy appointed by the president.[244]

1autonomous oblast

Russia had the world's fifth-largest diplomatic network in 2019. It maintains diplomatic relations with 190 United Nations member states, four partially-recognised states, and three United Nations observer states; along with 144 embassies.[251] Russia is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It has historically been a great power,[252] and a former superpower as the leading constituent of the former Soviet Union.[141] Russia is a member of the G20, the OSCE, and the APEC. Russia also takes a leading role in organisations such as the CIS,[253] the EAEU,[254] the CSTO,[255] the SCO,[256] and BRICS.[257]

Russia maintains close relations with neighbouring Belarus, which is a part of the Union State, a supranational confederation of the two states.[258] Serbia has been a historically close ally of Russia, as both countries share a strong mutual cultural, ethnic, and religious affinity.[259] India is the largest customer of Russian military equipment, and the two countries share a strong strategic and diplomatic relationship since the Soviet era.[260] Russia wields enormous influence across the geopolitically important South Caucasus and Central Asia; and the two regions have been described as Russia's "backyard".[261][262]

In the 21st century, relations between Russia and China have significantly strengthened bilaterally and economically; due to shared political interests.[263] Turkey and Russia share a complex strategic, energy, and defense relationship.[264] Russia maintains cordial relations with Iran, as it is a strategic and economic ally.[265] Russia has also increasingly pushed to expand its influence across the Arctic,[266] Asia-Pacific,[267] Africa,[268] the Middle East,[269] and Latin America.[270] In contrast, Russia's relations with neighboring Ukraine and the Western worldespecially the United States, the European Union, and NATOhave collapsed; following the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014 and the consequent escalation in 2022.[271][272]

The Russian Armed Forces are divided into the Ground Forces, the Navy, and the Aerospace Forcesand there are also two independent arms of service: the Strategic Missile Troops and the Airborne Troops.[6] As of 2021[update], the military have around a million active-duty personnel, which is the world's fifth-largest, and about 220 million reserve personnel.[274][275] It is mandatory for all male citizens aged 1827 to be drafted for a year of service in the Armed Forces.[6]

Russia is among the five recognised nuclear-weapons states, with the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons; over half of the world's nuclear weapons are owned by Russia.[276] Russia possesses the second-largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines,[277] and is one of the only three countries operating strategic bombers.[278] Russia maintains the world's fourth-highest military expenditure, spending $61.7 billion in 2020.[279] In 2021 it was the world's second-largest arms exporter, and had a large and entirely indigenous defence industry, producing most of its own military equipment.[280]

Human rights in Russia have been increasingly criticised by leading democracy and human rights groups. In particular, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say that Russia is not democratic and allows few political rights and civil liberties to its citizens.[282][283]

Since 2004, Freedom House has ranked Russia as "not free" in its Freedom in the World survey.[284] Since 2011, the Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked Russia as an "authoritarian regime" in its Democracy Index, ranking it 124th out of 167 countries for 2021.[285] In regards to media freedom, Russia was ranked 155th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index for 2022.[286] The Russian government has been widely criticised by political dissidents and human rights activists for unfair elections,[287] crackdowns on opposition political parties and protests,[288][289] persecution of non-governmental organisations and enforced suppression and killings of independent journalists,[290][291][292] and censorship of mass media and internet.[293]

Russia's autocratic[294] political system has been variously described as a kleptocracy,[295] an oligarchy,[296] and a plutocracy.[297] It was the lowest rated European country in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2021, ranking 136th out of 180 countries.[298] Russia has a long history of corruption, which is seen as a significant problem.[299] It impacts various sectors, including the economy,[300] business,[301] public administration,[302] law enforcement,[303] healthcare,[304][305] education,[306] and the military.[307]

Russia has a mixed economy,[309] with enormous natural resources, particularly oil and natural gas.[310] It has the world's ninth-largest economy by nominal GDP and the sixth-largest by PPP. The large service sector accounts for 62% of total GDP, followed by the industrial sector (32%), while the agricultural sector is the smallest, making up only 5% of total GDP.[6] Russia has a low official unemployment rate of 4.1%.[311] Its foreign exchange reserves are the world's fifth-largest, worth $540 billion.[312] It has a labour force of roughly 70 million, which is the world's sixth-largest.[313]

Russia is the world's thirteenth-largest exporter and the 21st-largest importer.[314][315] It relies heavily on revenues from oil and gas-related taxes and export tariffs, which accounted for 45% of Russia's federal budget revenues in January 2022,[316] and up to 60% of its exports in 2019.[317] In 2019, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry estimated the value of natural resources to be 60% of the country's GDP.[318] Russia has one of the lowest levels of external debt among major economies,[319] although its inequality of household income and wealth is one of the highest among developed countries.[320] High regional disparity is also an issue.[321][322]

After over a decade of post-Soviet rapid economic growth, backed by high oil-prices and a surge in foreign exchange reserves and investment,[183] Russia's economy was damaged following the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, due to the first wave of Western sanctions being imposed.[323] In the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the country has faced revamped sanctions and corporate boycotts,[324] becoming the most sanctioned country in the world,[325] in a move described as an "all-out economic and financial war" to isolate the Russian economy from the Western financial system.[193] Due to the impact, the Russian government has stopped publishing a raft of economic data since April 2022.[326] Economists suggest the sanctions will have a long-term effect over the Russian economy.[327]

Railway transport in Russia is mostly under the control of the state-run Russian Railways. The total length of common-used railway tracks is the world's third-longest, and exceeds 87,000km (54,100mi).[329] As of 2016[update], Russia has the world's fifth-largest road network, with 1.5 millionkm of roads,[330] while its road density is among the world's lowest.[331] Russia's inland waterways are the world's longest, and total 102,000km (63,380mi).[332] Among Russia's 1,218 airports,[333] the busiest is Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. Russia's largest port is the Port of Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai along the Black Sea.[334]

Russia has been widely described as an energy superpower.[335] It has the world's largest proven gas reserves,[336] the second-largest coal reserves,[337] the eighth-largest oil reserves,[338] and the largest oil shale reserves in Europe.[339] Russia is also the world's leading natural gas exporter,[340] the second-largest natural gas producer,[341] and the second-largest oil producer and exporter.[342][343] Russia's oil and gas production has led to deep economic relationships with the European Union, China, and former Soviet and Eastern Bloc states.[344][345] For example, over the last decade, Russia's share of supplies to total European Union (including the United Kingdom) gas demand increased from 25% in 2009 to 32% in the weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.[345]

Russia is committed to the Paris Agreement, after joining the pact formally in 2019.[346] Greenhouse gas emissions by Russia are the world's fourth-largest.[347] Russia is the world's fourth-largest electricity producer,[348] and the ninth-largest renewable energy producer in 2019.[349] It was also the world's first country to develop civilian nuclear power, and to construct the world's first nuclear power plant.[350] Russia was also the world's fourth-largest nuclear energy producer in 2019,[351] and was the fifth-largest hydroelectric producer in 2021.[352]

Russia's agriculture sector contributes about 5% of the country's total GDP, although the sector employs about one-eighth of the total labour force.[353] It has the world's third-largest cultivated area, at 1,265,267 square kilometres (488,522sqmi). However, due to the harshness of its environment, about 13.1% of its land is agricultural,[6] and only 7.4% of its land is arable.[354] The country's agricultural land is considered part of the "breadbasket" of Europe.[355] More than one-third of the sown area is devoted to fodder crops, and the remaining farmland is devoted to industrial crops, vegetables, and fruits.[353] The main product of Russian farming has always been grain, which occupies considerably more than half of the cropland.[353] Russia is the world's largest exporter of wheat,[356][357] the largest producer of barley and buckwheat, among the largest exporters of maize and sunflower oil, and the leading producer of fertilizer.[358]

Various analysts of climate change adaptation foresee large opportunities for Russian agriculture during the rest of the 21st century as arability increases in Siberia, which would lead to both internal and external migration to the region.[359] Owing to its large coastline along three oceans and twelve marginal seas, Russia maintains the world's sixth-largest fishing industry; capturing nearly 5 million tons of fish in 2018.[360] It is home to the world's finest caviar, the beluga; and produces about one-third of all canned fish, and some one-fourth of the world's total fresh and frozen fish.[353]

Russia spent about 1% of its GDP on research and development in 2019, with the world's tenth-highest budget.[361] It also ranked tenth worldwide in the number of scientific publications in 2020, with roughly 1.3 million papers.[362] Since 1904, Nobel Prize were awarded to 26 Soviets and Russians in physics, chemistry, medicine, economy, literature and peace.[363] Russia ranked 45th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021.[364]

Mikhail Lomonosov proposed the conservation of mass in chemical reactions, discovered the atmosphere of Venus, and founded modern geology.[365] Since the times of Nikolay Lobachevsky, who pioneered the non-Euclidean geometry, and Pafnuty Chebyshev, a prominent tutor; Russian mathematicians became among the world's most influential.[366] Dmitry Mendeleev invented the Periodic table, the main framework of modern chemistry.[367] Sofya Kovalevskaya was a pioneer among women in mathematics in the 19th century.[368] Nine Soviet and Russian mathematicians have been awarded with the Fields Medal. Grigori Perelman was offered the first ever Clay Millennium Prize Problems Award for his final proof of the Poincar conjecture in 2002, as well as the Fields Medal in 2006.[369]

Alexander Popov was among the inventors of radio,[370] while Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov were co-inventors of laser and maser.[371] Zhores Alferov contributed significantly to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics.[372] Oleg Losev made crucial contributions in the field of semiconductor junctions, and discovered light-emitting diodes.[373] Vladimir Vernadsky is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and radiogeology.[374] lie Metchnikoff is known for his groundbreaking research in immunology.[375] Ivan Pavlov is known chiefly for his work in classical conditioning.[376] Lev Landau made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics.[377]

Nikolai Vavilov was best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants.[378] Trofim Lysenko was known mainly for Lysenkoism.[379] Many famous Russian scientists and inventors were migrs. Igor Sikorsky was an aviation pioneer.[380] Vladimir Zworykin was the inventor of the iconoscope and kinescope television systems.[381] Theodosius Dobzhansky was the central figure in the field of evolutionary biology for his work in shaping the modern synthesis.[382] George Gamow was one of the foremost advocates of the Big Bang theory.[383] Many foreign scientists lived and worked in Russia for a long period, such as Leonard Euler and Alfred Nobel.[384][385]

Roscosmos is Russia's national space agency. The country's achievements in the field of space technology and space exploration can be traced back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the father of theoretical astronautics, whose works had inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers, such as Sergey Korolyov, Valentin Glushko, and many others who contributed to the success of the Soviet space program in the early stages of the Space Race and beyond.[387]:67,333

In 1957, the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, Sputnik1, was launched. In 1961, the first human trip into space was successfully made by Yuri Gagarin. Many other Soviet and Russian space exploration records ensued. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first and youngest woman in space, having flown a solo mission on Vostok 6.[388] In 1965, Alexei Leonov became the first human to conduct a spacewalk, exiting the space capsule during Voskhod 2.[389]

In 1957, Laika, a Soviet space dog, became the first animal to orbit the Earth, aboard Sputnik 2.[390] In 1966, Luna9 became the first spacecraft to achieve a survivable landing on a celestial body, the Moon.[391] In 1968, Zond 5 brought the first Earthlings (two tortoises and other life forms) to circumnavigate the Moon.[392] In 1970, Venera7 became the first spacecraft to land on another planet, Venus.[393] In 1971, Mars3 became the first spacecraft to land on Mars.[394]:3460 During the same period, Lunokhod 1 became the first space exploration rover,[395] while Salyut1 became the world's first space station.[396] Russia had 172 active satellites in space in April 2022, the world's third-highest.[397]

According to the World Tourism Organization, Russia was the sixteenth-most visited country in the world, and the tenth-most visited country in Europe, in 2018, with over 24.6 million visits.[398] According to Federal Agency for Tourism, the number of inbound trips of foreign citizens to Russia amounted to 24.4 million in 2019.[399] Russia's international tourism receipts in 2018 amounted to $11.6 billion.[398] In 2019, travel and tourism accounted for about 4.8% of country's total GDP.[400]

Major tourist routes in Russia include a journey around the Golden Ring of Russia, a theme route of ancient Russian cities, cruises on large rivers such as the Volga, hikes on mountain ranges such as the Caucasus Mountains,[401] and journeys on the famous Trans-Siberian Railway.[402] Russia's most visited and popular landmarks include Red Square, the Peterhof Palace, the Kazan Kremlin, the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and Lake Baikal.[403]

Moscow, the nation's cosmopolitan capital and historic core, is a bustling megacity. It retains its classical and Soviet-era architecture; while boasting high art, world class ballet, and modern skyscrapers.[404] Saint Petersburg, the Imperial capital, is famous for its classical architecture, cathedrals, museums and theatres, white nights, criss-crossing rivers and numerous canals.[405] Russia is famed worldwide for its rich museums, such as the State Russian, the State Hermitage, and the Tretyakov Gallery; and for theatres such as the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky. The Moscow Kremlin and the Saint Basil's Cathedral are among the cultural landmarks of Russia.[406]

Ethnic groups in Russia with a population of over 1 million according to the 2010 census.

Percentage of ethnic Russians by region according to the 2010 census.

Russia is one of the world's most sparsely populated and urbanised countries,[6] with the vast majority of its population concentrated within its western part.[407] It had a population of 142.8 million according to the 2010 census,[408] which rose to roughly 145.5 million as of 2022.[11] Russia is the most populous country in Europe, and the world's ninth most populous country, with a population density of 9 inhabitants per square kilometre (23 per square mile).[409]

Since the 1990s, Russia's death rate has exceeded its birth rate, which some analysts have called a demographic crisis.[410] In 2019, the total fertility rate across Russia was estimated to be 1.5 children born per woman,[411] which is below the replacement rate of 2.1, and is one of the world's lowest fertility rates.[412] Subsequently, the nation has one of the world's oldest populations, with a median age of 40.3 years.[6] In 2009, it recorded annual population growth for the first time in fifteen years; and since the 2010s, Russia has seen increased population growth due to declining death rates, increased birth rates and increased immigration.[413] However, since 2020, due to excessive deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's population has undergone its largest peacetime decline in history.[414] Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the demographic crisis in the country has deepened,[415] as the country has faced a renewed brain drain and human capital flight caused by Western mass-sanctions and boycotts.[416]

Russia is a multinational state with many subnational entities associated with different minorities.[417] There are over 193 ethnic groups nationwide. In the 2010 census, roughly 81% of the population were ethnic Russians, and the remaining 19% of the population were ethnic minorities;[418] while over four-fifths of Russia's population was of European descentof which the vast majority were Slavs,[419] with a substantial minority of Finnic and Germanic peoples.[420][421] According to the United Nations, Russia's immigrant population is the world's third-largest, numbering over 11.6 million;[422] most of which are from post-Soviet states, mainly Ukrainians.[423]

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Russia - Wikipedia

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The Kremlin is threatening retaliatory action after authorities arrested Artyom Uss, the son of a top Russian official, at the United States request, for allegedly participating in a sanctions evasion and money laundering scheme.

Uss, who was detained in Milan, was charged in relation to a scheme to unlawfully obtain U.S. military technology and sanctioned Venezuelan oil in order to support Russias war effort in Ukraine, according to charges unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice this week.

We are categorically against this and we condemn the practice of these kinds of arrests of Russian citizens, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Uss father, the governor of Russias Krasnoyarsk Krai region, Alexander Uss, has suggested the arrest is politically motivated, according to TASS.

Another Russian government spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said Moscow would not leave the United States search for Russians unanswered and accused the U.S. of taking hostages for political purposes, TASS reported.

These Top Putin Cronies Vowed to Fight in Ukraine Themselves. So Where Are They?

Uss wasnt the only one charged in the money laundering and smuggling scheme. Uss co-owned a trading company called Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH (NDA GmbH) which he and co-conspirators allegedly used as a front to ship U.S. defense technology to Russia.

Uss and co-conspirators are accused of using NDA GmbH to ship advanced semiconductors and microprocessors for fighter aircraft, missile systems, smart munitions, radar, and satellites to Russiasome have been found in weapons used in the war in Ukraine.

Some of the same electronic components obtained through the criminal scheme have been found in Russian weapons platforms seized on the battlefield in Ukraine, the Department of Justice said in an announcement, adding that the accused developed a sophisticated network of schemes that undermined security, economic stability and rule of law around the world.

Story continues

The group of co-conspirators also allegedly shipped hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela to Russian and Chinese entities, including at least one sanctioned oligarch.

The 12-count indictment charged five Russian nationals in total, including Yury Orekhov, Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, Timofey Telegin, and Sergey Tulyakov. Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce and Juan Carlos Soto were also charged with setting up illegal oil deals for Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.

One of the co-conspirators openly acknowledged that NDA GmbH was working for a sanctioned oligarch, according to court documents.

He [the oligarch] is under sanctions as well, Orekhov said. Thats why we [are] acting from this company [NDA GmbH]. As fronting.

Russia has long helped Venezuela evade sanctions around the globe. But the latest charges expose the multiple layers of sanctions the United States has imposed on both Russia and Venezuela.

The United States has been sanctioning Venezuela for more than 15 years, and in recent years has imposed restrictions on Venezuelas state oil company and other entities in order to try to pressure Venezuelan dictator Nicols Maduro to leave power.

Sanctions on Russian banks in recent months, which the United States and other nations have levied in an attempt to try to isolate Moscow on the world stage while it assaults Ukraine, have likely hurt Venezuelas ability to access its assets, according to the Congressional Research Service. But higher oil prices from Russias invasion of Ukraine appear to be driving a semblance of economic recovery for Venezuela, according to the CRS.

Task Force KleptoCapture, the Department of Justice group established earlier this year with the aim of punishing Russia for the war in Ukraine and enforcing sanctions on Russian oligarchs, announced the charges alongside other DOJ entities.

Stamping out evasion of export controls on military technology is among the Task Forces highest priorities, Andrew Adams, the director of Task Force KleptoCapture, said in a statement. Webs of shell companies, cryptocurrency and an international network of fraudsters failed to shield Orekhov and his cronies from apprehension by U.S. law enforcement.

Its not clear what Russia will be doing in response to Uss arrest.

When asked Thursday if Uss arrest is related at all to the negotiations to release Brittney Griner from Russia, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to speculate.

The President is willing to take extraordinary lengths to bring Americans home, Jean-Pierre said in a briefing with reporters.

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Russia Rages After Son of Putin Official Is Nabbed on U.S. Charges

World Bank provides Ukraine with additional $500 million

A Ukrainian helicopter flies in Donetsk region, on September 22, 2022.

Anatolii Stepanov | Afp | Getty Images

The World Bank has distributed another $500 million to Ukraine to help finance the country's critical spending needs.

The financing, provided by its lending arm, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, had been supported by $500 million in loan guarantees from the United Kingdom that were announced on Sept. 30, the bank said.

In total, the bank said it has authorized $13 billion in emergency financing forUkraine, of which $11.4 billion has been distributed.

A report published in September by the World Bank, the Ukrainian government and the European Commission estimated reconstruction and recovery costs totaled $349 billion as of June 1. However, the number is expected to keep increasing as the war drags on.

Natalie Tham

Mon, Oct 24 20226:26 PM EDT

ISTANBUL, TURKIYE - AUGUST 09: An aerial view of "Glory" named empty grain ship as Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkiye and the United Nations (UN) of the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) conduct inspection on vessel in Istanbul, Turkiye on August 09, 2022. The UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal on July 22 to reopen three Ukrainian ports -- Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny -- for grain that has been stuck for months because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which is now in its sixth month. (Photo by Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The organization overseeing the export of grain from Ukraine said it has approved four vessels to leave the besieged country.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal announced in July among Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said the vessels are carrying 159,662 metric tons of grain and other crops.

Two ships will depart from Ukraine's Yuzhny-Pivdennyi for China and Italy carrying corn and sunflower meal. One vessel will leave Odesa for Vietnam and is carrying nearly 57,000 metric tons of wheat. The fourth ship will depart from Chornomorsk to Algeria carrying 14,270 metric tons of wheat.

Read more about theBlack Sea Grain Initiative here.

Amanda Macias

Mon, Oct 24 20225:46 PM EDT

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes hands with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, who is to head a planned mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 30, 2022.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | via Reuters

The International Atomic Energy Agency will visit two nuclear locations in Ukraine, following a request from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to disprove Russian allegations that Ukraine plans to use a "dirty bomb."

"The IAEA inspected one of these locations one month ago and all our findings were consistent with Ukraine's safeguards declarations," IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement. "No undeclared nuclear activities or material were found there."

Both sites are under the U.N. nuclear watchdog's safeguards and receive regular visits from IAEA regulators, according to the agency. The IAEA said the purpose of the upcoming visit is to detect any undeclared nuclear activities or materials that could be consistent with Russia's "dirty bomb" allegations.

Rocio Fabbro

Mon, Oct 24 20225:46 PM EDT

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint news briefing with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Latvian President Egils Levits, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 9, 2022.

Valentyn Ogirenko | Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a statement touting the achievements of the Ukrainian military, marking exactly eight months since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

"We defended the independence of our state and Russia cannot change that," he wrote in a Telegram post. "We are liberating Ukrainian land step by step. Donbas, Kharkiv region, Kherson region."

He also expressed hope regarding two other Russian occupied regions, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea, claiming that "the time will come and all of Ukraine will be free."

Zelenskyy pointed to Russia's weakened global stature as a result of the war, with the loss of the country's gas and military influence and growing political isolation. He also referred to Russian allegations that Ukraine was prepared to use a "dirty bomb" on its territory as an attempt to "squeeze something out of Western countries" by "inventing various nonsense about Ukraine."

"Ukraine is breaking the so-called second army of the world and from now on Russia will only be a beggar," he said.

Rocio Fabbro

Mon, Oct 24 20225:24 PM EDT

Sweden's center-right government will fulfil all requirements under a deal with Turkey to join NATO and will concentrate external relations to its immediate neighborhood while dropping the previous administration's "feminist foreign policy," the country's top diplomat said.

Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrm said the new government shares Turkey's concern about the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe and the United States.

"There will be no nonsense from the Swedish government when it comes to the PKK," Billstrm told the Associated Press in an interview. "We are fully behind a policy which means that terrorist organizations don't have a right to function on Swedish territory."

Turkey stalled Sweden and Finland's historic bid to join NATO over concerns that the two countries Sweden in particular had become a safe haven for members of the PKK and affiliated groups.

Associated Press

Mon, Oct 24 20225:09 PM EDT

Yum Brands said that it reached a deal to sell itsKFCrestaurants inRussiato a local operator there, paving a path to fully exit the country.

The restaurant operator, which also owns theTaco Belland Pizza Hut brands, will transfer ownership of its Russian KFC locations, operating system and master franchise rights toSmart Service Ltd, which is run by existing Russian KFC franchiseesKonstantin Yurievich KotovandAndrey Eduardovich Oskolkov, Yum said in a press release.

The buyer will be responsible for re-branding the restaurants and retaining existing employees.

Many Western companies have sold their Russian assets to local managers as they scramble to comply with sanctions overRussia'sinvasion ofUkraine.

Reuters

Mon, Oct 24 20224:55 PM EDT

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price holds a press briefing on Afghanistan at the State Department in Washington, August 16, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

The U.S. has seen no indications that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

"At this time, we haven't seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons, but we've heard these very concerning statements," Price told reporters during a daily press briefing.

The U.S. is closely monitoring Russia's nuclear rhetoric, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a separate call.

Amanda Macias

Mon, Oct 24 20224:42 PM EDT

John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 21, 2022.

Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

The U.S. slammed Russian claims that Ukraine plans to use a "dirty bomb," adding that there is "absolutely nothing to the Russian allegation."

The U.S. is concerned about the allegations, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a conference call.

"They [the Russians] are the ones that made a public issue of this and obviously, we know that they're false and that there is no plan by the Ukrainians to do this," Kirby said.

"We're obviously taking the issue seriously," he added.

Russian Defense MinisterSergei Shoigu said earlier on Monday that the Kremlin was concerned "about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a 'dirty bomb,'" according to Russia's defense ministry.

Amanda Macias

Mon, Oct 24 20224:12 PM EDT

Ships, including those carrying grain from Ukraine and awaiting inspections are seen anchored off the Istanbul coastline on October 14, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Chris Mcgrath | Getty Images

The organization overseeing grain exports from Ukraine said it is working to address the backlog of 113 vessels awaiting inspection.

The Joint Coordination Center, or JCC, said in a statement that it "is concerned that the delays may cause disruption in the supply chain and port operations."

"The JCC is discussing ways to address the backlog noting that the next harvest is approaching and silos in the Ukrainian ports covered under the Initiative will be soon full again," the group wrote.

The JCC has enabled the movement of over 8.5 million metric tons of food products under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal announced in July among Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey.

Read more about theBlack Sea Grain Initiative here.

Amanda Macias

Mon, Oct 24 20223:30 PM EDT

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gestures during a news conference with Finland's Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto and Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde, after Finland and Sweden signed their countries' accession protocols at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium July 5, 2022.

Yves Herman | Reuters

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned Russia's "false claim" that Ukraine was planning to use a "dirty bomb" within its own territories.

"NATO Allies reject this allegation," he wrote in a tweet. "Russia must not use it as a pretext for escalation."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed back against the Russian allegations, arguing that this claim only indicates that Russia itself is likely preparing to use the "dirty bomb." The United States, United Kingdom and France have also spoken out against Russia's allegations.

NATO allies have provided extensive support to Ukraine, implementing enhanced measures in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea. Following the 2022 NATO Summit in Madrid, member countries agreed to enhance the existing Comprehensive Assistance Package to Ukraine due to the Russian invasion.

This led to more support in several security areas, including communications, cyber defenses, medical supplies, body armor, safety equipment and anti-drone systems.

Rocio Fabbro

Mon, Oct 24 20223:03 PM EDT

US' Women's National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, waits for the verdict inside a defendants' cage before a court hearing in Khimki outside Moscow, on August 4, 2022.

Evgenia Novozhenina | AFP | Getty Images

WNBA star Brittney Griner's appeal hearing before a Russian court is set for Tuesday.

Earlier this month a Russian judge decided to hear Griner's appeal after she was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to nine years in prison. Griner has been held in a Russian detention center for more than eight months since her arrest earlier this year.

Griner will appear via video conference at the hearing, which is expected to last about an hour. The judge's verdict is expected later on Tuesday.

Amanda Macias

Mon, Oct 24 20222:40 PM EDT

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley participates in a news briefing at the Pentagon May 23, 2022 in Arlington, Virginia.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley spoke with Chief of Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov by phone.

"The military leaders discussed several security-related issues of concern and agreed to keep the lines of communication open. In accordance with past practice, the specific details of their conversation will be kept private," wrote Joint Staff spokesperson Col. Dave Butler in a readout of the call.

Milley's call comes as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held two calls with his Russian counterpart in the past week.

Amanda Macias

Mon, Oct 24 20222:25 PM EDT

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a joint news conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow, Russia February 18, 2022.

Sergey Guneev| Sputnik | Reuters

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov contended the threat of a "dirty bomb" is real, even though the United States, Great Britain and France denied the possibility.

"Their distrust of the information provided by the Russian side does not mean that the threat of using such a 'dirty bomb' ceases to exist. The threat is obvious," Peskov said in a press briefing.

Peskov's statements followed claims by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that Ukraine was planning provocations using a "dirty bomb," which contaminates surrounding areas with radioactivity without the use of a nuclear explosion. The U.K., U.S. and France all denounced the allegations as "transparently false."

Peskov also said there are currently no planned calls for Russian President Vladimir Putin, after a slew of international calls made by Shoigu over the last few days, including with the U.S. and other Western allies.

Rocio Fabbro

Link:

Live updates: Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

1. White House warns of 'severe consequences' if Putin uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine; Russian court upholds Griners 9-year term  CNBC
2. Biden Says Russian Use of a Nuclear Weapon Would Be a Serious Mistake  The New York Times
3. October 24, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news  CNN
4. Latest Ukraine updates: Moscow raises dirty bomb claim at UN  Al Jazeera English
5. What are dirty bombs and why is Russia talking about them?  The Guardian
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

Link:

White House warns of 'severe consequences' if Putin uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine; Russian court upholds Griners 9-year term - CNBC

Members of Afghanistans elite National Army Commando Corps, who were abandoned by the United States and Western allies when the country fell to the Taliban last year, say they are being contacted with offers to join the Russian military to fight in Ukraine. Multiple Afghan military and security sources say the U.S.-trained light infantry force, which fought alongside U.S. and other allied special forces for almost 20 years, could make the difference Russia needs on the Ukrainian battlefield.

Afghanistans 20,000 to 30,000 volunteer commandos were left behind when the United States ceded Afghanistan to the Taliban in August 2021 . Only a few hundred senior officers were evacuated when the republic collapsed. Thousands of soldiers escaped to regional neighbors as the Taliban hunted down and killed loyalists to the collapsed government. Many of the commandos who remain in Afghanistan are in hiding to avoid capture and execution.

The United States spent almost $90 billion building the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Although the force as a whole was incompetent and handed the country over to the Taliban in a matter of weeks, the commandos were always held in high regard, having been schooled by U.S. Navy SEALs and the British Special Air Service.

Members of Afghanistans elite National Army Commando Corps, who were abandoned by the United States and Western allies when the country fell to the Taliban last year, say they are being contacted with offers to join the Russian military to fight in Ukraine. Multiple Afghan military and security sources say the U.S.-trained light infantry force, which fought alongside U.S. and other allied special forces for almost 20 years, could make the difference Russia needs on the Ukrainian battlefield.

Afghanistans 20,000 to 30,000 volunteer commandos were left behind when the United States ceded Afghanistan to the Taliban in August 2021 . Only a few hundred senior officers were evacuated when the republic collapsed. Thousands of soldiers escaped to regional neighbors as the Taliban hunted down and killed loyalists to the collapsed government. Many of the commandos who remain in Afghanistan are in hiding to avoid capture and execution.

The United States spent almost $90 billion building the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Although the force as a whole was incompetent and handed the country over to the Taliban in a matter of weeks, the commandos were always held in high regard, having been schooled by U.S. Navy SEALs and the British Special Air Service.

Emblematic of the commandos pyrrhic success was the battle of Dawlat Abad, where an Afghan commando unit fought the Taliban while waiting for reinforcements and resupplies that never came in June 2021. The U.S.-trained major who led the unit, Sohrab Azimi, became a national hero when it was revealed hed had only three days rest after fighting for 50 days straight before heading to his final battle.

Now, they are jobless and hopeless, many commandos still waiting for resettlement in the United States or Britain, making them easy targets for recruiters who understand the band of brothers mentality of highly skilled fighting men. This potentially makes them easy pickings for Russian recruiters, said Afghan security sources. A former senior Afghan security official, who requested anonymity, said their integration into the Russian military would be a game-changer on the Ukrainian battlefield, as Russian President Vladimir Putin struggles to recruit for his faltering war and is reportedly using the notorious mercenary Wagner Group to sign up prisoners.

Wagner is a shady organization that officially doesnt exist but is believed to be run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an associate of Putin who possibly funds it through the GRU military intelligence agency. It reportedly first emerged in Crimea after Moscows 2014 annexation of the region from Ukraine, and it has since appeared in Syria, Libya, and elsewhere in Africa. Prigozhin was recently filmed signing up prisoners in return for canceled sentences to reinforce Russian lines in Ukraine.

A former official, who was also an Afghan commando officer, said he believed Wagner was behind Russias recruitment of Afghanistans special forces. I am telling you [the recruiters] are Wagner Group. They are gathering people from all over. The only entity that recruits foreign troops [for Russia] are Wagner Group, not their army. Its not an assumption; its a known fact, he said. Theyd be better used by Western allies to fight alongside Ukrainians. They dont want to fight for the Russians; the Russians are the enemy. But what else are they going to do?

Some former commandos report being contacted on WhatsApp and Signal with offers to join what some experts referred to as a Russian foreign legion to fight in Ukraine. News of the recruitment efforts has caused alarm in Afghanistans former military and security circles, with members saying up to 10,000 former commandos could be amenable to the Russian offers. As another military source put it: They have no country, no jobs, no future. They have nothing to lose.

Its not difficult, he added. They are waiting for work for $3 to $4 a day in Pakistan or Iran or $10 a day in Turkey, and if Wagner or any other intelligence services come to a guy and offer $1,000 to be a fighting man again, they wont reject it. And if you find one guy to recruit, he can get half his old unit to join up because they are like brothersand pretty soon, youve got a whole platoon.

Since global attention switched to Ukraine following Russias February invasion, the Afghan commandos have been left high and dry. Instead of helping them escape Taliban death squads, the United States and its allies have largely gone AWOL. Their vulnerability to recruitment by countries hostile to the United States was flagged in a report by Rep. Michael McCaul on last years evacuation debacle. Referring to United States intelligence assetswhich include the Afghan commandoshe said they could potentially present a risk to U.S. security should they be coerced or coopted into working with an adversary, including international terrorist groups such as [the Islamic State-Khorasan] or state actors like China, Russia, and Iran.

A 35-year-old former commando captain in hiding in Afghanistan said he had helped a number of former colleagues connect with a recruitment office in Tehran. Recruits were flown from Afghanistan to Iran and then to Russia, he said. What happened next was unclear: When they accept Russias offer, the commando personnels phones are turned off. They proceed very secretly, the former captain said.

He and other former commandos who spoke from Afghanistan and Iran described living in desperate conditions. We are very disappointed. For 18 years, shoulder to shoulder, we performed dangerous tasks with American, British, and Norwegian consultants. Now, I am in hiding. I am suffering every second, said the 35-year-old. He didnt take up the offer, as he regards Russia as Afghanistans enemy. The former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and fought a 10-year war against U.S.-supported mujahideen. More recently, Russia supported the Talibans insurgency, and it has close ties with them now that theyre in power, stopping short of diplomatic recognition.

Another commando who fought alongside British special forces said he fled to Iran to escape Taliban death squads and now worries he will be arrested by Iranian police. Both commandos said they wanted to resettle in Britain but have no idea how to contact the authorities to ask for protection.

Recruitment messages seen by Foreign Policy use the same wording, suggesting a centralized operation. Anyone who would like to go to Russia with better treatment and good resources: please send me your name, fathers name, and your military rank, the messages say. Recipients are asked to help recruit other members of their units. Afghan television reported that the recruitment offers include Russian citizenship.

The 35-year-old captain, father to four young children, said he was still hopeful that he would be resettled in Britain. We fought the sworn enemies of Afghanistan for 20 years, all over the country, with high morale, on the side of Britain and the United States, the captain said. We are hiding like prisoners now.

Excerpt from:

Russia Is Recruiting Afghan Soldiers for the War in Ukraine

Monday marks the beginning of a "truly historic week" for Ukraine, as the country awaits a decision on its future within the European Union, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his Sunday evening address.

"We will hear the answer from the European Union on the candidate status for Ukraine," Zelenskyy said. Last week, the European Commission backed Ukraine for EU candidate status. Now it is up to the European Council to confirm Ukraine's status, with a decision expected by the end of this week, the Ukrainian president said.

"I am convinced that only a positive decision meets the interests of the whole of Europe," Zelenskyy said.

He added that Ukraine -- and other European countries -- should expect increased hostility from Russia in the coming week.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Saturday, June 18, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends meeting with military officials as he visits the war-hit Mykolaiv region.

"We are preparing. We are ready. We warn partners," he said.

But as combat units from both sides of the conflict remain committed to intense combat in the Donbas, they are likely experiencing dips in morale, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense stated in a Sunday intelligence update.

"Ukrainian forces have likely suffered desertions in recent weeks, however, Russian morale highly likely remains especially troubled," the ministry said.

As cases of whole Russian units refusing to carry out orders and armed stand-offs between officers and their troops continue to occur, Russian authorities are likely struggling to put legal pressure on the dissenters due to the invasion's official status as a 'special military operation', the UK report said.

Low Russian morale is driven by "perceived poor leadership, limited opportunity for rotation of units out of combat, very heavy casualties, combat stress, continued poor logistics, and problems with pay," according to the Defense Ministry. Many Russian personnel of all ranks also likely remain confused about the war's objectives, it said.

The U.K. Defense Ministry also said Monday the struggles of Russia's air force likely contributed to the exhaustion of Russian ground troops. "In the conflict to date, Russia's air force has underperformed," another intelligence update said on Monday.

A woman takes a Sunday walk past a home that was recently damaged by a Russian missile strike on June 19, 2022, in Druzhkivka, Ukraine.

"Its failure to consistently deliver air power is likely one of the most important factors behind Russia's very limited campaign success," the report stated. Despite boasting relatively modern and capable combat jets, Russia's air combat training has for years highly likely been heavily scripted and designed to impress senior officials, as opposed to fostering modern skill-sets, the Defense Ministry said.

As a result, Russian ground troops in Ukraine are becoming worn out while a heavy reliance on advanced cruise missiles has likely led to their stocks running low, the report concluded.

More shelters, less music

The Ukrainian Parliament on Sunday supported a bill on the construction of a network of bomb shelters across Ukraine, including in new buildings.

"The war has shown that there were few reliable shelters in Ukraine," said Olena Shulyak, a member of parliament.

Many of the existing shelters are not equipped with evacuation exits, lack access to water supply and sewerage systems, and are not adapted for food storage, Shulyak said on Telegram, adding, "Not to mention their ability to protect the population in the event of weapons of mass destruction."

The parliament topped off a busy weekend when it banned music by artists with Russian citizenship from being aired in public and in Ukrainian media to prevent the influence of "separatist sentiment in the population," according to the new bill.

A two-thirds majority of lawmakers agreed that Russian music would make the adoption of a Russian identity more attractive while weakening the Ukrainian state.

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Yulia Drozd

Read more here:

Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russians launching large-scale offensive in Luhansk region - ABC News

The 12th Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense operates a dozen central storage facilities for nuclear weapons. Known as Object S sites and scattered across the Russian Federation, they contain thousands of nuclear warheads and hydrogen bombs with a wide variety of explosive yields. For the past three months, President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have been ominously threatening to use nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine. According to Pavel Podvig, the director of the Russian Nuclear Forces Project and a former research fellow at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, now based in Geneva, the long-range ballistic missiles deployed on land and on submarines are Russias only nuclear weapons available for immediate use. If Putin decides to attack Ukraine with shorter-range, tactical nuclear weapons, they will have to be removed from an Object S sitesuch as Belgorod-22, just 25 miles from the Ukrainian borderand transported to military bases. It will take hours for the weapons to be made combat-ready, for warheads to be mated with cruise missiles or ballistic missiles, for hydrogen bombs to be loaded on planes. The United States will most likely observe the movement of these weapons in real time: by means of satellite surveillance, cameras hidden beside the road, local agents with binoculars. And that will raise a question of existential importance: What should the United States do?

President Joe Biden has made clear that any use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine would be completely unacceptable and entail severe consequences. But his administration has remained publicly ambiguous about what those consequences would be. That ambiguity is the correct policy. Nevertheless, there must also be open discussion and debate outside the administration about what is really at stake. During the past month, Ive spoken with many national-security experts and former government officials about the likelihood of Russia using nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the probable targets, and the proper American response. Although they disagreed on some issues, I heard the same point again and again: The risk of nuclear war is greater today than at any other time since the Cuban missile crisis. And the decisions that would have to be made after a Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine are unprecedented. In 1945, when the United States destroyed two Japanese cities with atomic bombs, it was the worlds sole nuclear power. Nine countries now possess nuclear weapons, others may soon obtain them, and the potential for things going terribly wrong has vastly increased.

Several scenarios for how Russia might soon use a nuclear weapon seem possible: (1) a detonation over the Black Sea, causing no casualties but demonstrating a resolve to cross the nuclear threshold and signaling that worse may come, (2) a decapitation strike against the Ukrainian leadership, attempting to kill President Volodymyr Zelensky and his advisers in their underground bunkers, (3) a nuclear assault on a Ukrainian military target, perhaps an air base or a supply depot, that is not intended to harm civilians, and (4) the destruction of a Ukrainian city, causing mass civilian casualties and creating terror to precipitate a swift surrenderthe same aims that motivated the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

From the July/August 2022 issue: We have no nuclear strategy

Any response by the Biden administration would be based not only on how Russia uses a nuclear weapon against Ukraine but also, more important, on how Russias future behavior might be affected by the American response. Would it encourage Putin to back downor to double down? Cold War debates about nuclear strategy focused on ways to anticipate and manage the escalation of a conflict. During the early 1960s, Herman Kahn, a prominent strategist at the Rand Corporation and the Hudson Institute, came up with a visual metaphor for the problem: the escalation ladder. Kahn was one of the primary inspirations for the character Dr. Strangelove in Stanley Kubricks classic 1964 film, and yet the escalation ladder remains a central concept in thinking about how to fight a nuclear war. Kahns version of the ladder had 44 steps. At the bottom was an absence of hostilities; at the top was nuclear annihilation. A president might choose to escalate from step No. 26, Demonstration Attack on Zone of Interior, to step No. 39, Slow-Motion Countercity War. The goal of each new step upward might vary. It might simply be to send a message. Or it could be to coerce, control, or devastate an adversary. You climbed the ladder to reach the bottom again someday.

The escalation vortex is a more recent and more complex visualization of a potential conflict between nuclear states. It was developed by Christopher Yeaw, who served as chief scientist at the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command from 2010 to 2015. In addition to the vertical aspects of the escalation ladder, the vortex incorporates horizontal movement among various domains of modern warfarespace, cyber, conventional, nuclear. An escalation vortex looks like a tornado. An illustration of one, featured in a Global Strike Command slideshow, places the worst outcome at the widest part of the funnel: the absolute highest levels of permanent societal destruction.

In October 1962, Sam Nunn was a 24-year-old recent graduate from Emory University School of Law whod just gotten a security clearance and a job as a staff member for the House Armed Services Committee. When a colleague backed out of an overseas tour of NATO bases, Nunn took his place, left the United States for the first timeand wound up at Ramstein Air Base, in Germany, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis. Nunn remembers seeing NATO fighters parked near runways, each loaded with a single hydrogen bomb, ready to fly toward the Soviet Union. Pilots sat in chairs beside their planes, day and night, trying to get some sleep while awaiting the order to take off. They had only enough fuel for a one-way mission and planned to bail out somewhere, somehow, after dropping their bombs. The commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe told Nunn that if a war began, his pilots would have to get their planes off the ground within a few minutes; Ramstein Air Base would be one of the first NATO targets destroyed by a Soviet nuclear attack. The commander kept a walkie-talkie with him at all times to give the takeoff order.

The Cuban missile crisis left a strong impression on Nunn. During his 24 years as a United States senator, he worked tirelessly to reduce the risk of nuclear war and nuclear terrorism. As the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he championed close cooperation with Moscow on nuclear matters. To continue those efforts, he later co-founded a nonprofit, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, with which I have collaborated on a number of projects. All of that work is now at risk of being undone by Russias invasion of Ukraine and the strident nuclear rhetoric accompanying it.

Before the attack on Ukraine, the five nations allowed to have nuclear weapons by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and Francehad reached agreement that the use of such weapons could be justified only as a purely defensive measure in response to a nuclear or large-scale conventional attack. In January 2022, those five countries issued a joint statement affirming Ronald Reagans dictum that a nuclear war must never be fought and can never be won. A month later, Russia violated norms that had prevailed under the NPT for more than half a century. It invaded a country that had given up nuclear weapons; threatened nuclear attacks against anyone who tried to help that country; and committed acts of nuclear terrorism by shelling the reactor complexes at Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhya.

Nunn supports the Biden administrations strategy of deliberate ambiguity about how it would respond to Russias use of a nuclear weapon. But he hopes that some form of back-channel diplomacy is secretly being conducted, with a widely respected figure like former CIA Director Robert Gates telling the Russians, bluntly, how harshly the United States might retaliate if they cross the nuclear threshold. During the Cuban missile crisis, President John F. Kennedy and First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev both wanted to avoid an all-out nuclear warand still almost got one, because of misunderstandings, miscommunications, and mistakes. Back-channel diplomacy played a crucial role in ending that crisis safely.

From the October 2007 issue: A near miss

Nunn describes Russias violations of long-standing norms as Putins nuclear folly and stresses that three fundamental things are essential for avoiding a nuclear catastrophe: rational leaders, accurate information, and no major blunders. And all three are now in some degree of doubt, he says.

Nunn argues that if Russia uses a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, the United States should not respond with a nuclear attack. He favors some sort of horizontal escalation instead, doing everything possible to avoid a nuclear exchange between Russia and the United States. For example, if Russia hits Ukraine with a nuclear cruise missile launched from a ship, Nunn would advocate immediately sinking that ship. The number of Ukrainian casualties should determine the severity of the American responseand any escalation should be conducted solely with conventional weapons. Russias Black Sea fleet might be sunk in retaliation, and a no-fly zone could be imposed over Ukraine, even if it meant destroying anti-aircraft units on Russian soil.

Since the beginning of the invasion, Russias nuclear threats have been aimed at discouraging the United States and its NATO allies from providing military supplies to Ukraine. And the threats are backed by Russias capabilities. Last year, during a training exercise involving about 200,000 troops, the Russian army practiced launching a nuclear assault on NATO forces in Poland. The pressure on Russia to attack the supply lines from NATO countries to Ukraine will increase, the longer this war continues, Nunn says. It will also increase the risk of serious blunders and mistakes. An intentional or inadvertent Russian attack on a NATO country could be the beginning of World War III.

During the summer of 2016, members of President Barack Obamas national-security team secretly staged a war game in which Russia invades a NATO country in the Baltics and then uses a low-yield tactical nuclear weapon against NATO forces to end the conflict on favorable terms. As described by Fred Kaplan in The Bomb (2020), two groups of Obama officials reached widely divergent conclusions about what the United States should do. The National Security Councils so-called Principals Committeeincluding Cabinet officers and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staffdecided that the United States had no choice but to retaliate with nuclear weapons. Any other type of response, the committee argued, would show a lack of resolve, damage American credibility, and weaken the NATO alliance. Choosing a suitable nuclear target proved difficult, however. Hitting Russias invading force would kill innocent civilians in a NATO country. Striking targets inside Russia might escalate the conflict to an all-out nuclear war. In the end, the NSC Principals Committee recommended a nuclear attack on Belarusa nation that had played no role whatsoever in the invasion of the NATO ally but had the misfortune of being a Russian ally.

Deputy staff members at the NSC played the same war game and came up with a different response. Colin Kahl, who at the time was an adviser to Vice President Biden, argued that retaliating with a nuclear weapon would be a huge mistake, sacrificing the moral high ground. Kahl thought it would be far more effective to respond with a conventional attack and turn world opinion against Russia for violating the nuclear taboo. The others agreed, and Avril Haines, a deputy national security adviser, suggested making T-shirts with the slogan Deputies should run the world. Haines is now President Bidens Director of National Intelligence, and Kohl is the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

In 2019, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) ran extensive war games on how the United States should respond if Russia invades Ukraine and then uses a nuclear weapon there. DTRA is the only Pentagon agency tasked exclusively with countering and deterring weapons of mass destruction. Although the results of those DTRA war games are classified, one of the participants told me, There were no happy outcomes. The scenarios for nuclear use were uncannily similar to the ones being considered today. When it comes to nuclear warfare, the participant said, the central message of the 1983 film WarGames still applies: The only winning move is not to play.

None of the national-security experts I interviewed thought the United States should use a nuclear weapon in response to a Russian nuclear attack on Ukraine. Rose Gottemoellerwho served as the chief American negotiator of the New START arms-control treaty with Russia and later as the deputy secretary general of NATObelieves that any nuclear attack on Ukraine would inspire global condemnation, especially from countries in Africa and South America, continents that are nuclear-weapon-free zones. She thinks that China, despite its tacit support for the invasion of Ukraine, would strongly oppose Putins use of a nuclear weapon and would back sanctions against Russia at the United Nations Security Council. China has long supported negative nuclear assurances and promised in 2016 unconditionally not [to] use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or in nuclear-weapon-free zones.

If the United States detects tactical weapons being removed from Russian storage sites, Gottemoeller thinks the Biden administration should send a tough warning to Moscow through back channelsand then publicize the movement of those weapons, using the same tactic of openly sharing intelligence that seemed to thwart Russian false-flag operations involving chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine. Over the years, shes gotten to know many of the top commanders who oversee Russias nuclear arsenal and developed great respect for their professionalism. Gottemoeller says they might resist an order to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. And if they obey that order, her preferred option would be a muscular diplomatic response to the nuclear strike, not a nuclear or conventional military response, combined with some form of hybrid warfare. The United States could launch a crippling cyberattack on the Russian command-and-control systems tied to the nuclear assault and leave open the possibility of subsequent military attacks.

Uri Friedman: Putins nuclear threats are a wake-up call for the world

Scott Sagan, a co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation, at Stanford University, believes that the risk of Russia using a nuclear weapon has declined in the past month, as the fighting has shifted to southern Ukraine. Putin is unlikely to contaminate territory hes hoping to seize with radioactive fallout. And a warning shot, such as the detonation of a nuclear weapon harmlessly over the Black Sea, would serve little purpose, Sagan says. It would signal irresolution, not resolvea conclusion that the United States reached half a century ago about the potential utility of a NATO demonstration strike to deter the Red Army. Sagan concedes that if Russia were to lose major battles in the Donbas, or if a Ukrainian counteroffensive seemed on the verge of a great victory, Putin might well order the use of a nuclear weapon to obtain a surrender or a cease-fire. In response, depending on the amount of damage caused by the nuclear explosion, Sagan would advocate American conventional attacks on Russian forces in Ukraine, Russian ships in the Black Sea, or even military targets inside Russia, such as the base from which the nuclear strike was launched.

Sagan takes issue with how the back-and-forth of military conflict is commonly depicted. As an image, an escalation ladder seems too static. It suggests the freedom to decide whether you should go up or down. Sagan thinks nuclear escalation would be more like an escalator: Once it starts moving, it has a momentum of its own, and its really hard to get off. He would be deeply concerned by any sign that Putin is taking even the initial steps toward nuclear use. We should not underestimate the risk of an accidental nuclear detonation if tactical weapons are removed from their storage igloos and dispersed widely among Russian military forces, Sagan warns.

I recently had lunch with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry at his home in Palo Alto, California. Perry is 94 years old, one of the last prominent military strategists active today who witnessed firsthand the devastation of the Second World War. He served in the U.S. Army of Occupation of Japan, and nothing that he had read about the firebombing of Tokyo prepared him for what he saw therea great city burned to the ground, the survivors living amid fused rubble, dependent on military rations. In Naha, the capital of Okinawa, the destruction seemed even worse. In his memoir, Perry writes that not a building was left standing, and includes a famous description: The lush tropical landscape was turned into a vast field of mud, lead, decay, and maggots. What Perry saw in Japan left him profoundly unsettled by the nuclear threat. Naha and Tokyo had been devastated by tens of thousands of bombs dropped in hundreds of air raids; Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by a single atomic bomb each.

Perry later earned advanced degrees in mathematics and became an early Silicon Valley pioneer, specializing in satellite surveillance and the use of digital technology for electronic warfare. During the Cuban missile crisis, he traveled to Washington, D.C., at the request of the CIA, and scrutinized satellite photographs of Cuba for evidence of Soviet nuclear weapons. He helped prepare the morning intelligence reports for President Kennedy and wondered every night whether the next day would be his last. As an undersecretary of defense during the Carter administration, Perry played a crucial role in developing stealth technology, and as secretary of defense during the Clinton administration, he led the effort to lock up nuclear weapons and fissile material at locations throughout the former Soviet Union. After leaving the Pentagon, he earned a dovish reputation, joining Sam Nunn, Henry Kissinger, and George Shultz in 2008 in a plea for the abolition of nuclear weapons; opposing American plans for new ground-based, long-range ballistic missiles; and calling upon the United States to make a formal declaration that it would never be the first to launch a nuclear attack. But Perrys views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine are anything but warm and fuzzy.

We ate sandwiches that Perry had prepared, with bread hed baked, sitting on a large terrace where the planters overflowed with flowers and hummingbirds hovered at feeders, beneath a brilliant blue sky. The setting could not have been more bucolic, the idea of nuclear war more remote. A few days earlier, Perry had given a speech at Stanford, outlining what was at stake in Ukraine. The peace that had reigned in Europe for almost eight decades had been shattered on February 24, he said, and if Russias invasion is successful, we should expect to see other invasions. Putin was now engaging in blackmail, threatening to use nuclear weapons for offensive, not defensive, purposes, trying to deter the United States from providing the conventional weapons that Ukraine badly needs. I fear that if we give in to this outrageous threat, Perry said, we will face it again.

Perrys manner is thoughtful, calm, and gentle, not the least bit alarmist or overemotional. Ive known him for more than a decade, and though his voice has grown softer, his mind is remarkably undimmed, and beneath his warmth and kindness lies steel. Perry has met Putin on a number of occasions, dating back to when he was the deputy mayor of St. Petersburgand thinks Putin will use tactical weapons in Ukraine if it seems advantageous to do so. Although the Russian Federations declared policy is to use nuclear weapons only when confronted with an existential threat to the state, public declarations from Moscow should always be taken with a grain of salt. The Soviet Union adamantly denied having any missile bases in Cuba as it was building them. It publicly vowed for years never to be the first to use a nuclear weapon, while secretly adopting war plans that began with large-scale nuclear attacks on NATO bases and European cities. The Kremlin denied having any intention to invade Ukraine, right up until it invaded Ukraine. Perry always found Putin to be competent and disciplined, but cold. He believes that Putin is rational at the moment, not deranged, and would use nuclear weapons in Ukraine to achieve victory and thereby ensure the survival of his regime.

During the Cold War, the United States based thousands of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons in NATO countries and planned to use them on the battlefield in the event of a Soviet invasion. In September 1991, President George H. W. Bush unilaterally ordered all of Americas ground-based tactical weapons to be removed from service and destroyed. Bushs order sent a message that the Cold War was overand that the United States no longer considered tactical weapons to be useful on the battlefield. The collateral damage they would cause, the unpredictable patterns of lethal radioactive fallout, seemed counterproductive and unnecessary. The United States was developing precision conventional weapons that could destroy any important target without breaking the nuclear taboo. But Russia never got rid of its tactical nuclear weapons. And as the strength of its conventional military forces waned, it developed very low-yield and ultra low-yield nuclear weapons that produce relatively little fallout. In the words of a leading Russian nuclear-weapons designer, they are environmentally conscious. The more than 100 peaceful nuclear explosions conducted by the Soviet Unionostensibly to obtain knowledge about using nuclear devices for mundane tasks, like the excavation of reservoirsfacilitated the design of very low-yield tactical weapons.

Two nuclear detonations have already occurred in Ukraine, as part of the Soviet Unions Program No. 7Peaceful Explosions for the National Economy. In 1972, a nuclear device was detonated supposedly to seal a runaway gas well at a mine in Krasnograd, about 60 miles southwest of Kharkiv. The device had an explosive force about one-quarter as large as that of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. In 1979, a nuclear device was detonated for the alleged purpose of eliminating methane gas at a coal mine near the town of Yunokommunarsk, in the Donbas. It had an explosive force about one-45th as large as that of the Hiroshima bomb. Neither the workers at the mine nor the 8,000 residents of Yunokommunarsk were informed about the nuclear blast. The coal miners were given the day off for a civil-defense drill, then sent back to work in the mine.

Tom Nichols: We need to relearn what wed hoped to forget

The weakness of Russias conventional forces compared with those of the United States, Perry suggests, and Russias relative advantage in tactical weapons are factors that might lead Putin to launch a nuclear attack in Ukraine. It would greatly benefit Russia to establish the legitimacy of using tactical nuclear weapons. To do so, Putin must choose the right target. Perry believes that a demonstration strike above the Black Sea would gain Putin little; the destruction of a Ukrainian city, with large civilian casualties, would be a tremendous mistake. But if Russia can destroy a military target without much radioactive fallout, without civilian casualties, and without prompting a strong response from the United States, Perry says, I dont think theres a big downside. Russia has more nuclear weapons than any other nation in the world. Its national pride is strongly linked to its nuclear weapons. Its propagandists celebrate the possible use of nuclear weaponsagainst Ukraine, as well as against the United States and its NATO allieson an almost daily basis, in an attempt to normalize their use. Its military has already destroyed Ukrainian cities, deliberately targeted hospitals, killed thousands of civilians, countenanced looting and rape. The use of an ultra low-yield nuclear weapon against a purely military target might not seem too controversial. I think there would be an international uproar, but I dont think it would last long, Perry says. It might blow over in a week or two.

If the United States gets intelligence that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon, Perry believes that the information should be publicized immediately. And if Russia uses one, the United States should call for international condemnation, create as big a ruckus as possiblestressing the word nuclearand take military action, with or without NATO allies. The reprisal should be strong and focused and conventional, not nuclear. It should be confined to Ukraine, ideally with targets linked to the nuclear attack. You want to go as little up the escalation ladder as you can get away with doing and still have a profound and relevant effect, Perry says. But if Putin responds by using another nuclear weapon, you take off the gloves the second time around and perhaps destroy Russias military forces in Ukraine, which the United States could readily do with conventional weapons. Perry realizes that these escalations would be approaching the kind of Dr. Strangelove scenarios that Herman Kahn wrote about. But if we end up fighting a war with Russia, that would be Putins choice, not ours.

Perry has been warning for many years that the nuclear danger is growing. The invasion of Ukraine has unfortunately confirmed his prediction. He believes that the odds of a full-scale nuclear war were much higher during the Cuban missile crisis, but that the odds of a nuclear weapon being used are higher now. Perry doesnt expect that Russia will destroy a Ukrainian air base with a tactical weapon. But he wouldnt be surprised. And he hopes the United States will not be self-deterred by nuclear blackmail. That would encourage other countries to get nuclear weapons and threaten their neighbors.

As I listened to the recording of my conversation with Bill Perry, it was filled with the incongruous sounds of wind chimes and birds singing. Vladimir Putin can determine if, when, and where a nuclear attack occurs in Ukraine. But he cannot control what happens after that. The consequences of that choice, the series of events that would soon unfold, are unknowable. According to The New York Times, the Biden administration has formed a Tiger Team of national-security officials to run war games on what to do if Russia uses a nuclear weapon. One thing is clear, after all my discussions with experts in the field: We must be ready for hard decisions, with uncertain outcomes, that nobody should ever have to make.

Link:

What If Russia Uses Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine? - The Atlantic

Vladimir Putins appearanceon the third day of the St Petersburg economic forum, the Kremlin promised, would be an extremely important intervention. And it was. The Russian leaders lengthy address, a rarity since the invasion of Ukraine, was a flame-throwing show of defiance and blame-shifting, a remarkable snapshot of a state of mind that leaves little hope for compromise. It was also a staggering display of weakness that even presidential bluster could not mask.

First, the context. Putin has avoided high-profile public speechesover the past four months, keeping his Victory Day speech brief and pushing back other mainstays of his calendar, like his televised direct linequestion and answer session,a multi-hour marathon that is a crucial part of Kremlin political theater and efforts to burnish the presidents image as benevolent patriarch. So itmattersthat he went ahead with the flagship addressat an investment gathering Russia has long toutedas its answer to Davos, the elite Alpine get-together, thumbing his nose at the West.

See the original post here:

The Weakness of Putin's Economic Show of Force Is Russia's Reality - Bloomberg