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Russia

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Russia is asserting itself as an imperial power. Isolated since its invasion of Ukraine, it is seeking to strengthen its ties with non-Western countries. At home, Vladimir Putin's regime is hardening.

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How the US under Trump Became a Strategic and Ideological Adversary of Europe

Date de publication
21 February 2025
Accroche

The Europeans' worst security nightmare seems to be coming true: on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Saudi Arabia to initiate the normalization of relations between their two countries. The meeting also aimed to set up peace negotiations for Ukraine. However, despite having the potential to affect the entire continent, the discussions took place without the Europeans or the Ukrainians being present.

The China-Russia Partnership and the Ukraine War: Aligned but not allied

Date de publication
20 February 2025
Accroche

China and Russia maintain a strategic partnership rooted in shared opposition to the U.S. and liberal democracies, but their relationship is shaped more by pragmatism than trust.

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Commanders of Putin's Long War: Purged, Reshuffled and Disgruntled

Date de publication
10 December 2024
Accroche

The trend of reshuffling the Russian top military command in the course of a fast-evolving and far from successful war has progressed unevenly both across the Armed Forces’ structures and in time. The rationale for and timing of the abrupt cadre decisions made by Commander-in-Chief Putin often defy logical explanation, and the rare official clarifications are no more informative than the usual information blackout. 

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Russian Military Manpower After Two and a Half Years of War in Ukraine

Date de publication
25 November 2024
Accroche

In addition to a military victory in Ukraine, the Russian leadership is planning to build up sizable troop formations for a possible conflict with NATO in the Baltic region and the Kola Peninsula. In particular, current plans aim for the military manpower to grow by about 350,000, reaching a total of 1.5 million soldiers and commanders. In the context of the current conflict in Ukraine, this cannot be accomplished without a new wave of mass mobilization. 

Yuri E. FEDOROV

Russia-North Korea Alliance: A New Threat to Global Security and Korean Stability?

14 November 2024
Accroche

An interview with Wooyeal PAIK, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Yonsei University. He analyses why North Korea's support for Russia could escalate global tensions, strain the EU-NATO security ties, and destabilize the Korean Peninsula.

Wooyeal PAIK
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Russian Strategic Thinking and Culture Before and After February 24, 2022: Political-Strategic Aspects

Date de publication
26 September 2024
Accroche

Written by Dimitri Minic, the scientific article "Russian Strategic Thinking and Culture Before and After February 24, 2022: Political-Strategic Aspects" in Russia’s war against Ukraine: Complexity of Contemporary Clausewitzian War by the National Defence University Department of Warfare, Helsinki 2024.

Global Financial Shifts: The Impact of Dollar Sanctions and Frozen Russian Assets

24 September 2024
Accroche

An interview with Brad Setser, Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow (Council on Foreign Relations) led at Ifri on September 24, 2024.

Dollar-based financial sanctions have been increasing, particularly since the beginning of the century. Is this phenomenon likely to significantly alter the international role of the dollar?

There is a lot of controversy about the in which way frozen assets from Russia’s central bank should be treated, regarding both the assets themselves and the associated revenues. What consequences do you foresee for the international financial system?

Brad SETSER
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Russia in the Arctic: The End of Illusions and the Emergence of Strategic Realignments

Date de publication
31 July 2024
Accroche

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has triggered profound changes in the Arctic region, the consequences of which remain uncertain in the long term.

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Between Aspiration and Reality: Russia in the World (Dis)order

Date de publication
17 June 2024
Accroche

The world has rarely seemed more disorderly than it is today. But in this anarchic environment, some things are constant. 

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In Putin's wartime Russia, military corruption is suddenly taboo

10 June 2024
Accroche

To be sure government spending reaches the battlefield in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin is suddenly putting high priority on purging Defense Ministry officials accused of corruption. Russia's war in Ukraine has turned out to be a powerful anti-corruption initiative — at least at the Ministry of Defense.

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India-Russia Relations in Troubled Times: Steady but Stagnating

Date de publication
07 May 2024
Accroche

This paper examines the trajectory of India-Russia relations post-February 2022. The war in Ukraine emerged as a significant challenge for bilateral ties, presenting new obstacles to political and diplomatic relations and intensifying the previous difficulties in developing economic cooperation.

Aleksei ZAKHAROV
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Russia’s Ideological Construction in the Context of the War in Ukraine

Date de publication
22 March 2024
Accroche

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Russian government has been proactive in the ideological realm to ensure the sustainability of the war for Russian society. 

The World Through the Lens of Ukraine

Date de publication
08 March 2024
Accroche

This issue of Politique étrangère looks at three conflicts currently unfolding around the world.

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Cracks In Western Support Pose New Challenge For Ukraine

06 December 2023
Accroche

Ukraine faces growing diplomatic headwinds after its summer counter-offensive against Russia's forces faltered, with aid from vital backers in the United States and EU being increasingly called into question.

The South versus the West?

Date de publication
05 December 2023
Accroche

In 2023, forums that amplify the voice of the “Global South” have proliferated and grown louder. As contradictory and divided as they may be, these forums (BRICS+, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), G20, the Group of 77, the European Silk Road Summit…) attest to the emergence of new power relations, and especially new directions in foreign policy, with states rejecting alignment with the dominant powers of the past in favor of putting their own interests first. A new world is taking shape, with changeable, still uncertain, contours.

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BRICS: The Uncertainties of an “Alternative” Forum

Date de publication
05 December 2023
Accroche

Initially limited to the financial domain, the term BRICS is gradually becoming established in global economic governance.

Julien VERCUEIL
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Russia’s New Challenges in the Baltic/Northern European Theater

Date de publication
14 November 2023
Accroche

The long war in Ukraine has brought a drastic geopolitical reconfiguration of the Baltic theater and a deep shift in the military balance between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

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Gaza-Israel conflict: Opportunity and risk for Russia's Putin

18 October 2023
Accroche

The conflict between Hamas and Israel is both an opportunity and a risk for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been mired in pressing his invasion of Ukraine for the past 19 months.

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Gaza-Israel conflict: Opportunity and risk for Russia's Putin

18 October 2023
Accroche

The conflict between Hamas and Israel is both an opportunity and a risk for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been mired in pressing his invasion of Ukraine for the past 19 months.

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Gaza-Israel conflict: Opportunity and risk for Russia's Putin

18 October 2023
Accroche

The conflict between Hamas and Israel is both an opportunity and a risk for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been mired in pressing his invasion of Ukraine for the past 19 months.

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India-Russia Relations in Troubled Times: Steady but Stagnating

Date de publication
07 May 2024
Accroche

This paper examines the trajectory of India-Russia relations post-February 2022. The war in Ukraine emerged as a significant challenge for bilateral ties, presenting new obstacles to political and diplomatic relations and intensifying the previous difficulties in developing economic cooperation.

Aleksei ZAKHAROV
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How the Russian Army Changed its Concept of War, 1993-2022

Date de publication
23 May 2023
Accroche

The traditional and high-intensity war that has occurred in Ukraine since Russia decided to invade raises a key issue: did post-soviet Russian strategic thought really prepare Russia for waging this war?

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Reflection on Russia’s Changing Image in the Post-Soviet Region

Date de publication
09 September 2022
Accroche

The two years preceding the Russian invasion of Ukraine suggested that Russia had adopted a measured policy toward the post-Soviet space. Faced with social protests in Belarus, a coup in Kyrgyzstan, the victory of pro-European president Maia Sandu in Moldova, the second war in Nagorno-Karabakh, and riots in Kazakhstan, Russia showed diplomatic ability without any hard arm-twisting of partners. In 2020, then Carnegie Moscow Center director Dmitry Trenin even concluded that “there will be no new edition of the empire”. The war in Ukraine has completely changed this analysis. 

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Russia, the Global Sanitary Crisis and Oil Meltdown: Revisiting Power and the Enemy

Date de publication
27 April 2020
Accroche

In global affairs, the Covid-19 virus makes all countries, powers and individuals equal in one dimension: none is immune to or spared from contamination. In an open and interdependent world, we are all exposed to global sanitary and environmental degradations. Russia is no exception: it has gone into lockdown, with increasing economic and social costs adding up to the fall in oil and gas prices and upcoming impacts of the global recession.

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The Future of Europe from the US and Asian Point of View

Date de publication
30 December 2019
Accroche

In this special issue of Politique étrangère devoted to the proceedings of the conference organized by Ifri on April 10, 2019, in the Grand Amphitheater of the Sorbonne, on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary, discover the debate moderated by Sylvie Kauffmann between John Allen and Kishore Mahbubani.

John ALLEN Kishore MAHBUBANI Sylvie KAUFFMANN
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The World of Yesterday and Tomorrow

Date de publication
30 December 2019
Accroche

In this special issue of Politique étrangère devoted to the proceedings of the conference organized by Ifri on April 10, 2019, in the Grand Amphitheater of the Sorbonne, on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary, discover the speech by Thierry de Montbrial, Founder and Executive Chairman of Ifri.

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What Can Europe Hope to Achieve in Tomorrow's World?

Date de publication
30 December 2019
Accroche

In this special issue of Politique étrangère devoted to the proceedings of the conference organized by Ifri on April 10, 2019, in the Grand Amphitheater of the Sorbonne, on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary, discover the debate moderated by Christine Ockrent between Franziska Brantner, Jean-Louis Boulanges, Bernardino Leon, and Igor Yurgens.

Franziska BRANTNER Jean-Louis BOURLANGES Bernardino LEON Igor YURGENS Christine OCKRENT
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Russia’s Energy Strategy-2035: Struggling to Remain Relevant

Date de publication
10 December 2019
Accroche

Russia’s Energy Strategy to 2035 (ES-2035) enters, finally, the home stretch. The Ministry of Energy submitted its version of the document to the Russian Government in early October 2019.

Tatiana MITROVA Vitaly YERMAKOV
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Is a 'Reset' Between France and Russia Needed and, If So, Is It Possible?

Date de publication
09 December 2019
Accroche

As Emmanuel Macron hosts Angela Merkel, Vladimir Zelenskiy, and Vladimir Putin for a summit aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict, it is worth taking stock of the French leader’s Russia policy to try to discern what Paris’s policy toward Moscow can and cannot achieve.

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The Arctic: Critical Metals, Hydrogen and Wind Power for the Energy Transition

Date de publication
25 January 2019
Accroche

According to a 2008 estimate, the Arctic hosts approximately 412 billion barrels of oil equivalent of conventional oil and gas resources. And since then, following the so-called shale revolution and technology improvements, numbers have gone even higher. 

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Energy Relations between Russia and China: Playing Chess with the Dragon

Date de publication
01 August 2016
Accroche

Post-sanctions Russia-China energy relations: what expectations?

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Shifting Political Economy of Russian Oil and Gas

Date de publication
01 March 2016
Accroche

Dramatic changes in the Russian energy strategy and energy-based political alliances are to be expected due to the evolution of the domestic oil and gas market resulting from the economic crisis and sanctions linked to the annexation of Crimea.

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Russia’s Immigration Policy: New Challenges and Tools

Date de publication
20 January 2016
Accroche

A new stage in the development of Russia's migration policy is upon us. Since 2010, legal amendments and the Concept of Migration Policy of the Russian Federation to 2025, adopted in June 2012, marked a clear change in how migration flows are regulated, the aim being now to maximise the economic benefit of labour migration.

Lyoubov BISSON

War’s Indirection or the Return of the Limited War

Date de publication
01 December 2015
Accroche

Over the last few years both the United States and Russia seem to have changed their conception of how to deploy force. 

Olivier KEMPF

There Will Be Gas: Gazprom’s Transport Strategy in Europe

Date de publication
30 October 2015
Accroche

The key role of Ukraine in the transportation of Russian gas and the underground gas storage facilities are a legacy of the Soviet era. From the mid-1990s onwards, Gazprom has repeatedly tried to control gas transit through Ukraine and other infrastructures from the Soviet era without success. 

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The Political and Commercial Dynamics of Russia's Gas Export Strategy

Date de publication
01 September 2015
Accroche

A wide-ranging look at the way Gazprom interacts with an increasingly challenging global gas market for Russia.

Gazprom in Europe: a Business Doomed to Fail?

Date de publication
01 July 2014
Accroche

The construction of what is nowadays called European energy policy is an ongoing process that officially started with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, and has not yet been entirely finalized. It took several decades to move from a Community composed of six countries to a policy – not fully fledged – intended to strengthen as much as possible cohesion between 28 EU member states in the energy sector.

Raising the Costs to President Putin

Date de publication
01 April 2014
Accroche

-by building dissonance within. Some like to remember fondly the call by Ronald Reagan for Gorbachev “to tear down this wall”. The United States “Won the Cold War” said George Bush Senior in his State of the Union Address. We need to step back and recognize with some humility that the Soviet Union fell largely of its own weight rather than as a result of external pressure. Again today Russia is economically weak. It has become an exporter of raw materials, its industrial sector is weak, and its revenues are already falling. Conditions now offer the opportunity to aggravate Russia’s economic frailty – let’s focus on that.

William C. RAMSAY

Russian LNG: The Long Road to Export

Date de publication
08 December 2013
Accroche

On 1 December 2013 a law on the export liberalization of liquefied natural gas (LNG) came into legal force in Russia. The law allows some categories of companies other than Russia's state gas giant Gazprom and its subsidiary companies to have LNG export rights.

Beyond the "Arab Spring": Russia's Security Interests in the Middle East

Date de publication
08 November 2012
Accroche

The reconfiguration of the regional system of international relations as a result of the Arab revolutions has engendered fresh challenges for Russia, related, amongst other things, to deteriorating relations with the USA and other Western powers. 

Irina ZVYAGELSKAYA
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Thierry VIRCOULON

China, Russia rise in CAR as Western influence shrinks

24 May 2018
Accroche

Russia and China are muscling their way into the Central African Republic as Western clout in the mineral-rich, strategically important nation seems to wane, analysts say.

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100 years after independence from Moscow, Finland anchored firmly to West

04 December 2017
Accroche

HELSINKI (AFP) - A century after gaining independence from its powerful neighbour Russia, Finland continues to consolidate its ties to the West, as tensions flare between Moscow and the West. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and an uptick in military activity in the Baltic region have tested Finnish-Russian relations, painstakingly maintained over the years with scrupulous diplomatic efforts.

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From Russia, with love

22 April 2017
Accroche

Russia is trying to “sow chaos” in Europe by betting big on Marine Le Pen and France's far right.
 

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Presentation of Ramses 2026, Ifri, Paris
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