Post Graduate Intelligence Study

One country is comparable to the United States of America in terms of world power and prominence. Russia makes their name known beginning in World War 2 (WW2), later in the Korean War, Cold War, and today’s proxy war in the Syria. Russia’s culture, environment, politics, military, and economy do not just make Russia a regional powerhouse, but slowly becoming a region of influential power to surrounding countries with the end state of a global superpower. All the factors that make Russia the powerhouse that it is slowly becoming, highlights the impressive trend that supersedes the previous Soviet Union and past leaders.

The foreign policies of Russia also compliments in many ways its domestic policies, both in the apparent want for dominance and security in the focal point on sovereignty. These aims lead to an importance on bringing back Russia’s international status and removing positions of power that Western states have had in Russia

The roaring anti-Americanism proclaimed by Russian leaders and reflected on government-controlled television has provoked an ugly point with shameless capture of Crimea. Putin has made clear that he doesn’t care about international norms and

Throughout history, Russia and The United States’ relationship has been a tense one, lacking trust. “Like most cultures, it is important to have

Amid Russia’s current political strife, there is an aroused interest in the nation as a whole. Only by understanding its origin and growth can Modern Russia truly be understood. The very concept of Russia as just a country is fundamentally flawed, until the Russian people are acknowledged as more than

The article I chose to reflect on is “Why Russia Matters” by James F. Collins and Matthew Rojansky. In this article the author highlights the ten most important roles Russia plays in the world today. The only thing that I can honestly say I already knew about Russia prior to reading this article was that it’s big. Russia being so big has a lot to do with its importance to the rest of the world. For example, Russia has a lot of land and water making it home to many natural resources, so preserving it is very important. Along with lots of land and water, Russia is the second largest producer of oil. Being such a big producer of oil gives Russia power to control the prices around the world. Russia has the 12th largest economy in the nation and

Like most countries, is one of migrating people and ancient kingdoms. Russia has had its share of crazy rulers. One example was the Grand Duke of Ivan IV the terrible, that Russia became a unified state. He carried out horrific campaign against the boyars, confiscating their land and executing or exiling those who displeased him. In 1581, in a rage he struck his son and heir Ivan with an iron rod, killing him. Pretty crazy if you ask me. Although, Russia has had its fair share of crazy they still have been able to make a name for themselves. The Russians have fought in many wars and battles over the years. After Russia fending off the Napoleon’s invasion Russia’s status as a leading power in post-Napoleonic Europe. Yet even as Russia emerged more powerful than ever from the Napoleonic era, its internal tensions began to increase. Russia grew considerably stronger than ever towards the end of the Second World War. Russia was surprised when the Germans invaded in June of 1941. The Germans seized most of the Soviet territory in the west, and advanced to within a few hundred miles of Moscow. Russia counter offense pushed back the advance on the capital. A year later, the Germans

Ever since the cold war, Russia has always held a grudge against America as a revisionist state. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, owns extreme nationalism and wants nothing more but for Russia to be on top, the strongest, most powerful, expanding country.

Putin has quickly become one of the most powerful and feared politicians in the world, but his rise to the top was not one of ease and swiftness. Coming from a family of war heroes and revolutionists, it is clear to see where his interest in politics and the government stemmed. As his grandfather Spiridon Putin once served in the Soviet Union’s secret police force, he also dreamed of becoming a member of Russia’s secret police force, the KGB. Showing leadership traits by taking initiative at such an early age, he approached his local KGB branch and essentially asked for a job application. Much to the dismay of young Putin, he was told to never contact the agency again. As fate would have it, a few years into his college career the KGB offered him a job, allowing him

In so called “Crimean” speech in March 2014 Russian President V. Putin used such terms as “divided nation”, “national-traitors”, “Russian world”, justifying and legitimizing Russia taking over Crimean peninsula. President V. Putin applied mostly to the Russian people concerned by “protection of compatriots” abroad from discrimination or even repressions and historical “injustice” needed to be repaired. But does Kremlin really believe in this or it uses this rhetoric just to explain Russian involvement to the neighbor’s inner situation? The right answer on this question will make us to understand true Russian foreign policy motivation in Ukraine and Baltic states. Knowing what is Russian Foreign Policy driven by, the recommendations to those

The issue raised within the article is the increased tension between Russian and the United States caused by Russia’s decision to back out of a ‘ landmark agreement on disposing weapons-grade plutonium’ added to its deployment of ‘ new nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad on the baltic sea’ these two actions by Russia occurred due to Russia’s annoyance at the US’s military exercises in eastern Europe both of these actions have negatively affected interstate relations between the two world powers. Russian president Vladimir Putin’s military aggression has worried both european and american officials leaving them with a very difficult decision on how to deal with the issue and Putin because Washington’s attempts to deter Russia have failed

Russia has been around for a long time and has evolved over the years. Their ability to adapt to their environment as a country and, essentially, become a powerhouse in the world, is a great feat in itself. Over time Russia developed their social climate, economic system, military power and efficiency, as well as infrastructure. Today, I will be discussing how their military, political views, economics, social views, infrastructure and physical environment all relate together and has enhanced Russia’s ability to stay a powerhouse.

Vladimir Putin was and still is, one of the most influential and controversial figures within the Russian State. Vladimir Putin’s childhood was one marked by high achievements and important events that shaped him into the leader he became for Russia. He was a student at a high-ranked Russian school, known to only take children with high, above average grades. Here at this school he relished in the idea about becoming a spy as his career after admiring them in many of his favorite spy movies. After his high school career he decided to continue with his education by going to Leningrad State University, where he would find his ticket to the top of politics in the form of a professor. His name was Anatoly Sobchak, a teacher in Putin’s second semester of collage. After Putin attended the university he was offered a job with the KGB, one of the only ones in his class, where he would achieve his dream of being a spy. He was located in Eastern Germany as an undercover agent to spy for the USSR and was able to fit in with the Germans, gaining important information for Russia. Vladimir Putin’s creation of contacts and impressions that he made in his collage career would really become an advocate for him in his rise to power of one of the largest countries in the world.

For the past year in the media there has been a lot of publicity and speculation involving Russia and its alleged influence in the recent US election. This made me admire things about Russia’s politics and how much power they assert in other countries around the world to meet their own agenda. For example using their military dominance to intimidate other regional powers and even superpowers. My hypothesis is that Vladimir Putin has his own political agenda for Russian power, he wants Russia to become what it once was and the rest of the world leaders are too weary or ill prepared to challenge him. To consider this, I split my investigation into 3 key questions; Firstly, ‘What kind of influence does Russia have in the political

Putin’s foreign and defence policy indicates that Russia is aiming to become the regional power amongst its geopolitical neighbours and aims to accumulate more of the relative power it had lost since the decline of the Soviet Union. Kuchins and Zevelev state that one of the prime explanations for Russia’s actions is the long-standing, historical belief within the states national identity that Russia is a Great Power and its foreign policy reflects ambitions of working to regain as much of its lost power as possible to maintain this belief. This is evident through Russia’s strategic alliances and relationships it is fostering within the Eurasian continent. Putin has recently arranged many strategic ties to China, the only country with rivalling power to that of the US at this present moment. This will help to maintain Russia’s economic, energy, technological, military and geopolitical interests in the face of the sanctions and threats imposed by the US and NATO and rally strength within its regional sphere. Russia signed a $400 billion deal to export its gas to China over a thirty year period. From a realist perspective, this deal was the beneficial approach to overcoming sanctions set forth by the West that without acting on would work against any relative economic gain for