Lecture 2 - Putin's Russia and the New Cold War (part 2) Flashcards
Utilising terrorist attacks to gain power:
September 1999: Moscow apartment bombings
October 2002: Moscow theatre siege – SCREENING
September 2004: Beslan school siege
March 2010: Moscow metro bombings
January 2011: Domodevovo (Moscow) airport bombing
Moscow bombings: 293 killed, 653 injured; Led to the launch of the Second Chechen War
Moscow Theatre: 850 hostages
39 attackers + 129 hostages dead after Russian forces pumped unknown chemical agent and raided the theatre. Lead to Russia tightening a control over Chechen
Beslan school: More than 1,110 hostages; 380+ killed
Used to consolidate power of the President and reform security services
Moscow metro bombings: 40 killed, 100+ injured. Islamist Chechen female suicide bombers, whose husbands have usually been killed by Russian forces in Chechnya
Domodevovo (Moscow) airport bombing: 35 killed, 180 injured; Attributed to Islamic militants from Northern Caucasus Putin: “retribution is inevitable”
Controlling domestic politics and the opposition:
October 2006 – Anna Politkovskaya
November 2006 - Alexander Litvinenko
Anna: Journalist, believed that Putin established a Soviet-style democracy. September 2004: poisoned while covering Beslan. 7 Oct 2006: Assassinated in her apartment lift; contract killing (on Putin’s birthday!)
One week after the assassination: Litvinenko names Putin as responsible for her death…
Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London
1 November 2006:
Panorama investigation on the Polonium trail > 33,000 passengers of BA flights affected because of radioactive traces on the planes
Controlling domestic politics and the opposition:
July 2009 - Natalia Estemirova
February 2015 – Boris Nemtsov
Natalia: Award-winning human rights campaigner, Documented hundreds of cases of abuse in Chechnya, abducted from her home and shot
Boris: Opposition politician and vocal critic of the Kremlin, said that his colleague’s death “could have been sanctioned only by Putin”
Limiting pluralism and press freedom
RIA Novosti
December 2013
- RIA Novosti was Russia’s biggest international news agency
- Under Svetlana Mironyuk’s leadership, it had become the most pluralistic and independent news org in Russia
- Putin liquidated the agency and appointed anti-West homophobic journalist Dmitry Kiselyov as head of the new government-controlled news agency (integrated with Voice of Russia)
Yevgenia Albats
Investigative journalist; Has documented the resurrection of FSB (KGB) and its infiltration of the political and economic establishment
July 2010
The Medvedev government passes a law through parliament (further) expanding the powers of the FSB
- It can warn citizens of “creating the conditions” for crimes
- Obstructing an FSB officer or refusing an FSB request leading to detention/fine
- Human rights org Memorial argues that the FSB is seeking “preventative” powers (which can be used to suppress dissidents)
The resurgence of the Orthodox Church - Social conservatism and homophobia
February/March 2012: Pussy Riot
January 2013: Duma passes a bill outlawing the promotion of homosexuality
Reforming the Russian Armed Forces
New weapons and equipment
Radical reform to army and command structure
Drastic reduction in the size of the officers corps (200,000 to start with)
New role for the FSB (ex-KGB): fight corruption
> > > Tupolev Tu-160 (Blackjack)
August 2007:
August 2007: puts strategic bombers back on long-range patrol since the break-up of the Soviet Union;
September 2007: British and Norwegian jets intercept Tupolevs after breaching NATO air space
December 2007: Danish fighter jets shadow and intercept Tupolevs
September 2008: Revealed that in late 2007 the Tu-160 breached UK air-space undetected and got 20 miles off Hull!!
> > > Sukhoi PAK FA T50
Fifth generation stealth fighter jet
First fighter jet designed in Russia since the collapse of the USSR
Designed to be more flexible than the American F-22 Raptor
Developed in collaboration with India
29 January 2010: maiden flight
Planned roll-out soon (2018)
January 2013: Submarine Yuri Dolgorukiy
Borei
New class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - will enable the Russian Navy to resume strategic patrols in southern latitudes that have not seen a Russian missile submarine in 20 years
January 2015: Russian envoy called in after nuclear bombers cross Channel
> > > Resisting the US Anti-missile defence system
February 2007: US starts negotiations with Poland and Czech Republic for the construction of missile shield installations
Aim: protect Europe from Iran
July-August 2008: US, Poland and Czech Republic sign formal agreements
Russia threatens US with a military-technical response, not a diplomatic one; warns Poland that by agreeing to NATO’s anti-missile system it is exposing itself to a strike – a nuclear attack even (by Russia).
NATO’s Missile Defence System
2012 Chicago Summit: NATO announces that the anti-missile shield has reached interim capability (= basic command & control
February 2015: NATO to set up six new command posts in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria (activated in September 2015)
Aim: to better protect the region in the event of any threat from Russia
NATO’s Missle Defence System cont…
The counter-argument
NATO-Russia Council (established in 2002)
NATO’s new Strategic Concept
NATO-Russia Council (established in 2002) = official tool for resolving conflicts, building consensus, promoting cooperation
NATO’s new Strategic Concept: November 2010
- Tackling cyber attacks
- War on drugs
- Preventing terrorism
- Nuclear non-proliferation
- Maritime security (esp. against piracy)
The Illegals Program
- Network of (eleven) Russian sleeper agents under non-official cover
- Had lived for many years in US cities under false IDs, getting jobs, building relationships with neighbours, becoming part of the local communities
- Planted by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) in order to infiltrate “policy making circles”
- Arrested by the FBI in July 2010, deported / swapped with Russian prisoners accused of espionage
- October 2010: Medvedev awards spies top honours in ceremony
