Russia & CIS

“Welcome to the Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games,” said said Mehriban Aliyeva, First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, Chairperson of the Islamic Solidarity Games Operations Committee addressing the Opening Ceremony of the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku May 12.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has officially declared the Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games open, Trend reports.

Security forces killed three PKK terrorists in southeastern Turkey on Friday, officials said, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

The opening ceremony of the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games is being held in the Baku Olympic Stadium, Trend reports.

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis will participate in meetings with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Tuesday, US Department of Defense spokesperson Capt. Jeff Davis said in a briefing on Friday, Sputnik reported.

A pioneering new study has uncovered large amounts of water in the "primitive atmosphere" of an exoplanet, which is a similar size to Neptune. The discovery could help uncover how such planets formed, to provide insight into how other planets in galaxies across the universe.

Contrary to forecasts, the complicated economic and foreign policy situation has not reduced the number of those who support President Putin. Experts of the Civil Society Development Fund said in the report titled "Putin's Majority: On the Eve of Large Election Cycle" that the number of Putin's supporters in Russia has grown

Mike Kofman and I wrote up our joint impressions of the 2017 MCIS conference for The National Interest. Here’s a taste of the key points…

This year the conference attempted to balance a confrontational tone with offerings of cooperation, in particular on counterterrorism, which was the overall theme for the event. But judging from much of the discussion, the real topic should have been information warfare, which not only made its debut at this conference, but permeated many of the talking points. “Fake news,” “post-truth world” and numerous other terms in the modern discourse on information warfare were sprinkled throughout speeches, with a separate panel dedicated to the topic. “Information war” had clearly arrived in a big way, and not just because nobody could stop looking at their smartphone during the conference.

MCIS 2017 proved another interesting foray into the minds of Russia’s national-security aristocracy, with a veritable lineup of who’s who in terms of leadership, including Nikolai Patrushev, Sergei Shoigu, Sergey Lavrov, Alexander Bortnikov, Sergei Naryshkin and, of course, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. However, from the very opening it was clear that Russian leadership was somewhat out of practice when it came to speaking about a cooperative agenda, and while their rancor over long-standing problems with the West came through, the willingness to work together was much less apparent. In general, they had trouble holding back sincerely held sentiments on NATO’s activities in Europe, missile defense and the United States’ foreign policy writ large, which got in the way of the desire to extend an olive branch to the West.

Despite the fire and brimstone, the Russian leadership did signal a desire to reengage with the United States, while compartmentalizing other issues in the relationship, but it was presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. Moscow did not come off as desperate to cooperate, but if anything as more firm. Fighting ISIS together was the focal point of Russian commentary on prospective cooperation with the United States, but these points came with reproaches on violating countries’ sovereignty, and the recent cruise missile strike in Syria, which was termed a crude violation of international law. It seemed that Russian officials were trying to speak from a position of strength.

Click here to read the full article.

One more installment. Two sets of slides on missile defense. A Russian language video recording of the entire panel is available, with some of the slides visible in conjunction with the presentation. First, the Russian view, presented by Lt General Viktor Poznikhir, the Vice Chief of the Main Operations Directorate. 

Second, the presentation by the Chinese representative, deputy head of the Chief Operations Directorate of the Joint Staff Department, Central Military Commission, Major General Cai Jun, which as near as I could tell was pretty much the entirety of his presentation translated into English. (Thanks to Rachel Douglas for providing the correct spelling and title for the general.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the "recovery period" between Russia and Turkey has finished, and the countries return "to a normal partnership of interaction." This is a very good signal, which means that Moscow and Ankara trust each other again. In a war of "all against all" raging in the Middle East, such a statement means a lot

Today’s installment of slides comes from the speech of Belarusian Defense Minister Andrei Ravkov, which immediately followed and was largely complementary to Valery Gerasimov’s speech. The Ravkov speech is available on video in Russian and English.

The multifunctional long-range radar surveillance aviation complex A-100 will be able to detect new classes of targets, including next-generation aircraft, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said. The A-100 is a system а long-range radar surveillance and guidance. These complexes are used to detect and accompany air targets, surface ships

As I mentioned in my last post, I was once again at the Moscow Conference on International Security last week. I will post my overall impressions in the next few days, but first the traditional posting of the slides from key speakers. First up, Russian Chief of the General Staff Valeriy Gerasimov. The conference organizers have posted the Russian transcript of his speech as well as Russian and English language videos. Apologies for the poor quality of a few of the images.

Russia's economy will grow by 1.1% in 2017 against the backdrop of "relatively high oil prices." "The growth is possible, and one does not have to be too smart to predict it. If the situation does not deteriorate sharply, one may say that we will achieve the economic growth of one percent. However, this level is below the level of statistical error

I was in Moscow last week for the Moscow Conference on International Security. Look for my usual writeup on the event later in the week. In the meantime, some photos and videos.

In a case of being in the right place at the right time, the rehearsal for the May 9 military parade was held last week, and I happened to be at a restaurant that was on the route they were using to get to Red Square. So while the rehearsal itself was after dark, I got a lot of daylight video and images.

Videos first (I can’t embed videos here, so please click on the links)

Logistics vehicles: https://goo.gl/photos/PuWWrNvRB3PqZeUg6

Armata tanks and various artillery: https://goo.gl/photos/FVJWE2fwXiXrTbt89

Kornet and BTRs: https://goo.gl/photos/wBnvwBDcRmx5APEi8

Arctic brigade and S-400: https://goo.gl/photos/WCaJxnDCir6Hak789

A little of everything here (Iskander, S-400, tanks, Kornet, etc): https://goo.gl/photos/HHWi3CFdc9FTQX1S7

SA-17: https://goo.gl/photos/ovXKRka7zoqcrhER6

Yars ICBMs: https://goo.gl/photos/bPUpy3FUF8uNyaSU9

And a few photos

Georgia won’t increase the purchase of Azerbaijani gas in 2017, despite the refusal to purchase Russian gas, Georgia’s Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mariam Valishvili told Trend.

Incomes of Azerbaijan’s state budget amounted to 3,591.5 million manats in the first quarter of 2017, exceeding the forecast of 3,473 million manats by 3.4 percent, said the Ministry of Finance.

The head of NATO has warned that a NATO without Turkey would be weak, APA reports quoting Anadolu.

Chief of Azerbaijan’s State Border Service, Border Troops Commander, Colonel General Elchin Guliyev and Chairman of the State Customs Committee, Colonel General Aydin Aliyev checked the organization of services at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku on Saturday.

The 14th plenary meeting of the EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC) will be held in Brussels on May 1-4.