April 20:
So much for Russia’s efforts to erect a competent, combat-ready all-volunteer army, it would seem. The Wall Street Journal reports that the plan put forth by Prime Minister Putin several years ago to “transform the army from a cumbersome machine designed for European land war into a lithe force capable of fighting regional wars and terrorism” remains stillborn, thanks to poor morale, a lack of opportunity for enlisted servicemen and widespread desertion. Mismanagement and cost overruns have also plagued the plan, as have tight budgets created by an ambitious $650 million Kremlin plan to upgrade the country’s fighter aircraft contingent, naval warships and strategic arsenal. And as a result, plans for a professional army have now been formally scrapped by the Russian Defense Ministry. "We cannot afford to create a fully professional army," Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said this Fall. "If we save funds elsewhere, we will certainly go back to this idea, but well prepared."
April 21:
The son of one of Russia’s leading Internet entrepreneurs has been kidnapped in Moscow, the BBC reports. Ivan Kaspersky, the son of software guru Yevgeny Kaspersky, whose firm Kaspersky Lab has pioneered a world-famous antivirus suite, went missing in the Russian capital in mid-April. The presumed kidnappers are now demanding some three million Euros ($4.3 million) for Ivan’s return.
April 22:
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev’s push for better corporate governance in Russia is gathering steam. Bloomberg reports that government officials currently installed on the boards of as many as 1,000 companies in Russia could be removed in coming months as part of the presidential initiative. The Kremlin’s influence over these companies will not necessarily diminish, however; Medvedev has suggested that the replacements for the ousted officials should be selected from a “talent pool” hand-picked by the presidential administration.
April 25:
Russia and the United States are moving ahead with plans to revive a “defense technology” agreement as part of the Obama administration’s ongoing “reset” of relations with the Kremlin. The Global Security Newswire reports that the pact, known as the Defense Technological Cooperation Agreement, “would provide a legal framework on a host of defense-related research and development activities, including measures for countering improvised explosive devices.” The agreement was initially proposed by the Bush administration in 2004, but tabled four years later as a result of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Georgia.
Reviving the deal now, U.S. officials say, makes good strategic sense. "Russia has a large defense industry and there are certainly opportunities for cooperation between both the United States and Russia that would require more than just having a series of meetings in order to effect any real type of cooperation," one official involved in the negotiations has told GSN. "You would need to have your basic framework agreement before you could agree to the specifics."
April 27:
Russia and NATO may now be engaged in talks over a joint ballistic missile defense system, but Moscow still sees the Atlantic Alliance as an existential threat to its security. In comments carried by Reuters, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has expressed new worries over NATO’s eastward expansion – and what it might mean for Russia. "The expansion of NATO infrastructure towards our borders is causing us concern," Putin told his Swedish counterpart, Fredrik Reinfeldt, during recent consultations. "NATO is not simply a political bloc, it is a military bloc. No one cancelled the agreements on how the bloc reacts to external threats. It is a defence structure."
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