Dimitri MINIC
Research Fellow, Russia / Eurasia Center
Research Interests:
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Russian strategic thought
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Russian armed forces
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Russian political-strategic culture
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Threat perceptions
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Russian political-military elites
Dimitri Minic is a Research Fellow at Ifri’s Russia / Eurasia Center. He holds a Ph.D. in History of International Relations from the Sorbonne University (2021) and obtained funding for his thesis from the Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy (DGRIS) and the Institute for Strategic Research at the Military School (IRSEM) of the French Ministry of Armed Forces. He also was a consultant for the DGRIS where he produced reports on energy issues in Eurasia and North America.
His PhD thesis is named “Avoiding Armed Struggle: Russian Strategic Thought in the Face of the Evolution of War, 1993-2016”. His research deals with Russian strategic thought, the Russian army and the Russian hybrid and high intensity capacities. He also works on issues of the Russian military-political elites’ strategic culture and threats’ perception.
The traditional and high-intensity war that has occured in Ukraine since Russia decided to invade raises a key issue: did post-soviet Russian strategic thought really prepare Russia for waging this war?
On February 24, 2022, eight years after deploying an integrated military and non-military indirect strategy against Kiev, Vladimir Putin decided to initiate an open war against Ukraine.
The Kremlin wanted Russia's invasion of Ukraine to yield a lightning victory, but 12 months on the war is dragging into a stalemate with neither side achieving military breakthrough nor prepared to agree a settlement based on the status quo.
Does the war in Ukraine change the prospect of European Union enlargement? What is the possibility and future of Europe's common foreign and security policy? Does russian aggression unite or unify Europe and what is the role of the European political community? What is Russia's ultimate...
Kyiv expects new recruits to appear within two months but Moscow struggles with training and logistical obstacles.
Following the last Ukrainian victories over the Russian Army in the Kharkiv oblast, Russian administration currently faces controversies. As a matter of fact, many question the degree of intensity Russian general staff has decided, avoiding for now general mobilization. According to Dimitri...
Vladimir Putin is not a military strategist, and the decision to shift Russian forces from around Kyiv to the southeast in order to be in a position to defeat the Ukrainian army rather than go all out to achieve regime change now in Ukraine shows that, Dmitri Minic<...>
Western powers appear unable to thwart Putin’s strategy to reassert Russian influence