Tag: Russia

Your 5 Questions on Russian Meddling Answered

Image courtesy of step-svetlana/Pixabay

This article was originally published by Political Violence @ a Glance on 27 November 2019.

In this new series, experts give their quick responses to five questions about the most important news of the day.

What should the United States be most concerned about regarding possible meddling by Russia in US elections?

Jesse Driscoll: I think three things are pretty concerning. First, it’s concerning that the kinds of interventions we have evidence of can easily be “up-scaled” without necessarily violating laws. Second, I find it concerning that the Russian government is so entrepreneurial about identifying polarizing issues that do not seemingly have anything to with US-Russia policy—suggesting they may be fine-tuning models of voter turnout suppression that could induce disgust and be micro-targeted. Third, and most importantly, I think it’s clear that Russia is just experimenting. It’s easy to imagine other countries doing more, with more resources, in the near future.

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Russia’s Economy

This graphic highlights Russia’s political and economic performance relative to other post-Soviet states. For more on Russia’s economy, read Russian Analytical Digest No. 241: Russia’s Economy.

Hypersonic Weapons: Tactical Uses and Strategic Goals

Image courtesy of DVIDS

This article was originally published by War on the Rocks on 12 November 2019.

Hypersonic flight is not new. The V-2 rocket and the vast majority of the ballistic missiles that it inspired achieved hypersonic speeds (i.e., speeds faster than the speed of sound or Mach 5+) as they fell from the sky, as did crewed aircraft like the rocket-powered X-15. Rather than speed, today’s renewed attention to hypersonic weapons owes to developments that enable controlled flight. These new systems have two sub-varieties: hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles. Glide vehicles are the cousins of ballistic warheads: they are lofted on high velocity boosters, separate, then use momentum and control surfaces to skip and glide through the upper atmosphere before crashing onto their targets. The cruise missiles use an advanced propulsion system (a SCRAMJET) for powered flight. While the descriptions are straightforward, the engineering needed to accomplish the guidance and maneuvering (not to mention survivability) of these weapons is far from clear.

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Russia-Ukraine Relations

This graphic outlines the findings of a survey of Ukrainian and Russian public opinion on the conflict in the Donbas. For more, read the new issue of the Russian Analytical Digest ‘Russia-Ukraine‘.

A Possible Step Toward Peace in Eastern Ukraine

Image courtesy of OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine/Flickr. (CC BY 2.0)

This article was originally published by the International Crisis Group on 9 October 2019.

Kyiv has accepted the Steinmeier formula, a mechanism for jump-starting implementation of the peace deal for parts of eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. This decision is welcome, but the Ukrainian government should step carefully to boost chances of a settlement.

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