Bettina Renz

Putin's militocracy? An alternative interpretation of Siloviki in contemporary Russian politics

Abstract This article challenges the perception of the rising numbers of siloviki in Russian politics as a conscious strategy and expression of a more authoritarian policy direction pursued by President Putin. Contextualising the phenomenon within the framework of the system of elite recruitment in contemporary Russia, and engaging in a micro-level study of individual siloviki, the article argues that the role of these figures is more modest than often asserted and the possibility of a coordinated ‘siloviki project’ is unlikely.

Chinese migration: still the major focus of Russian Far East/Chinese North East relations?

Abstract In contrast to Sino-Russian relations at the state-level, regional cooperation between the contiguous Russian Far East and Chinese North East has been difficult to achieve, despite the existence of seemingly natural economic complementarities. This article asks why this is the case and argues that one important stumbling block, i.e. negative reactions to Chinese labour migration, has become less problematic. Situating Russian Far East/Chinese North East relations in a regionalist framework the article compares the salience and framing of major issues in regional relations in Chinese and Russian media at the national and regional levels. Contrary to earlier research, the findings suggest that economic and regional development issues, and not Chinese migration into the Russian Far East, are by far the most salient sets of issues on both sides. However, significant differences in the framing of these issues suggest that a convergence of opinion on the desirability of regional cooperation masks contradictory expectations for the direction of regional development.

Russian Military Capabilities after 20 Years of Reform

Despite widespread perceptions, Russia is close to having the military it needs.

Making a connection in the provinces? Russia's tweeting governors

This article seeks to examine how Russian regional governors are using the social media platform Twitter and the potential implications this has for government–society relations. Analysing a large sample of tweets generated by regional governors, the article provides an empirical assessment of the content, purpose and uses of Twitter by these officials, which vary significantly across different governors. While some uses suggest potential for increasing the responsiveness of politics in Russias regions, others appear to propagate a similar diet of news management and online propaganda.

RUSSIAN MILITARY REFORM

Abstract Russias war with Georgia highlighted the weaknesses of its armed forces. Recent reforms have sought to redress structural problems, but the political will needed to give Russia a modern, professional army – able to fight limited, regional wars – is still insufficient. Moscow needs to fully embrace the end of conscription, the integration of state-of-the-art military hardware and wider political reform.

Russia's “Force Structures” and the Study of Civil-Military Relations

We have to consider the whole complexity of the meaning of the military in Russia, where shoulder to shoulder with the “first army”—the armed forces—there is a second one. 1 1D. Trenin, ‘Desiatiletie nevyuchennykh urokov: Grazhdansko-voennye otnosheniia v 90-e gody i perspektivy novogo raunda voennykh reform’, Politiia, vol. 20, no. 2 (summer 2001), p. 74. In addition to the regular armed forces overseen by the Ministry of Defense, contemporary Russia has nine distinct institutions, or force structures, that have under their command their own militarized or armed formations. These institutions have remained noticeably understudied to date. This article provides an introduction to each component of the force structures and concludes that their existence should influence the future agenda of Russian civil-military relations analyses.

Russian Military Modernization

At a time when most Western militaries are contracting and making room for budgetary cuts, the Russian military is going in the opposite direction. Anxious to make its defense capabilities more relevant to the contemporary security environment, the Russian political leadership has pushed for its military to modernize. But many substantial hurdles stand in the way.

Russia and ‘hybrid warfare’

ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the Crimea annexation in March 2014, the idea of ‘hybrid warfare’ quickly gained prominence as a concept that could help to explain the success of Russian military operations in this conflict. Although the concept continues to enjoy widespread popularity in both scholarly and policy circles, its utility as an analytical tool is also heavily contested. This article adds to the literature critical of the ‘hybrid warfare’ concept. It argues that in addition to the fact that what is now described as a ‘hybrid’ approach to war is nothing new, the problems pertaining to its utility for the study of contemporary Russia go deeper than this. ‘Hybrid warfare’ inadequately reflects the direction of Russian military modernisation and as such has led to a skewed understanding of Russian military capabilities. Moreover, the tendency to use ‘hybrid warfare’ not only to conceptualise developments in the Russian military, but in the country’s foreign policy in general, can lead to serious unintended consequences.

Traffickers, terrorists, and a ‘new security challenge’: Russian counternarcotics strategy and the Federal Service for the Control of the Drugs Trade

The collapse of the Soviet Union precipitated the massive expansion of drug use and trade in Russia. The country now has one of the largest populations of injecting drug users in the world and has become the largest single-country market for Afghan heroin. In 2003 the Federal Service for the Control of the Drugs Trade was created to coordinate a comprehensive counternarcotics strategy appropriate to the scale of this threat. The service continues to face a number of challenges in its early stages of development. However, it has made considerable advances in improving responses to large-scale organised crime and in building international cooperation.

Discrimination in Aerial Bombing: An Enduring Norm in the 20th Century?

The role airpower can and should play in current and future armed conflicts is contested. The 1990s saw overwhelming optimism about the ability of airpower to win wars by itself and to facilitate cleaner and faster military victories. Recent assessments have been more cautious and critical, in particular with respect to the effects of civilian suffering caused by the kinetic use of airpower on public opinion and on the strategic outcome of conflicts. The influential US counterinsurgency manual FM3-24, for instance, highlights the importance of avoiding civilian casualties for winning over the local population, whereas others point out that concern over civilian casualties has become one of the major limits to the use of force by Western states. There appears to be an assumption among both academics and practitioners that historical developments in the 20th century have led to an invigoration of the norm of discrimination in aerial bombing, at least in Western states. This norm affects both strategic behaviour and public discourses in that it constrains the use of airpower in armed conflict and leads to public outrages in cases of violation of the norm. Four factors have been seen to be responsible for this development: technological advances, including the emergence of mass communication media and new weapon systems; the historical experience of the potentially unlimited destructiveness of airpower in World War II; the increasing ‘legalisation’ of the use of armed force and, finally, the growing