The circumstances of the downing of a plane belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines and the official responses by Azerbaijan, Russia, and Kazakhstan highlight the complex and dynamic nature of Russia’s relations with its neighboring countries in the post-Soviet era. While Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and other countries in Central Asia would like to reduce their dependence on Russia, Moscow’s current economic weakness—a result of the international sanctions imposed on it—has made it increasingly reliant on these countries. This dynamic has...
The surprise attack by rebel forces against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is currently shaking the already fragile Syrian arena. Within just a few days, the rebel organizations managed to take control of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, while engaging in widespread attacks on regime forces and their supporters—without effective resistance from the regime, as was the case during the Syrian civil war. Turkey, which supports the rebels, apparently gave them the green light to launch the offensive and is hoping to...
The summit of the leaders of BRICS member states held in October 2024 in Kazan, Russia, with the participation of the organization’s new members—UAE, Egypt, Iran, and Ethiopia—highlighted a strategy characteristic of the Cold War era: non-alignment with a global superpower. This approach persists despite the aspirations of Russia and China to transform BRICS into an alternative to the Western-led global order. Thus, the organization is shaping itself as a mechanism for cooperation but not for coordination or the advancement of a...
Frequent discussions in recent weeks between senior Russian and Iranian officials indicate a tightening of strategic ties between the two countries. From Russia’s perspective, the war in Ukraine and the military confrontations involving Israel represent interconnected elements in military, economic, and diplomatic spheres. Thus, Russia’s reliance on Iranian arms supplies amid its prolonged war in Ukraine underscores its attentiveness to Iran’s military and strategic needs. At the same time, the extent of Russian support for Iran...
A recent FBI report reveals a Russian influence campaign targeting several countries, including the United States and Israel. The report highlights Russia’s attempts to sway Israeli public opinion, particularly during times of political upheavals, with the aim of encouraging support for its war against Ukraine. For the first time, it was publicly disclosed that the Arab population in Israel was also a target of Russian influence. The campaign utilized digital media and the creation of fake content, which was spread via social...
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Russian agents have been carrying out hostile influence activities against the Israeli public, aimed to undermine public confidence in the actions of the Israeli army and harm the strategic alliance between Israel and the United States. These activities are part of a long-term information warfare that Russia is waging around the world, with the intent of strengthening its standing in the international arena at the expense of the United States and its allies. Russian agents have conducted...
Within the framework of its struggle against the West and Ukraine, Russia divides the world between “cruel aggressors” and the “defending victims.” The ideological-historic basis for this narrative comes from the Soviet Union’s struggle against Nazi Germany. In recent years, the direct connection between Israel and European Jewry, which is a clear example of a victim, has become blurred, and now Jerusalem is being portrayed as a “cruel aggressor” against a new “defending victim”—the Palestinians. This logic perfectly explains...
Since the October 7th massacre, Russia has stepped up its semi-covert disinformation attacks against Israel, as part of its global Doppelganger influence campaign, which began in 2022. These attacks align with Russia’s official stance, which has remained hostile to Israel in recent months. They signal a strategic shift in the Kremlin’s approach, by grouping Israel with countries it perceives as enemies. A policy shift by the Israeli government should reflect these dynamics and address the new risks to Israel posed by an increasingly...
The Russian presidential election that was held on March 15–17 provided Russian military bloggers with an opportunity to promote a pro-Putin and pro-war narrative. An analysis of posts from three leading Telegram channels that appeared in the four months preceding the election indicates their connection with promoting the legitimacy of the government and continuing the war in Ukraine. In the election campaign, the posts depicted Ukraine and the West as antidemocratic and as trying to sabotage Russian democracy. Putin, for his part,...
Israel’s position regarding the war in Ukraine represents an ongoing dilemma, in part due to the connection that the US administration sees between the Israel-Hamas war and Ukraine’s confrontation with Russia, as well as Washington’s efforts to provide economic and military aid to both Israel and Ukraine. Israel’s neutral position on the war in Ukraine, in face of the longstanding pro-Palestinian position that Moscow has taken, signals to Russia that it can continue to ignore Israeli interests, and at the same time, does not help the...
Since the Hamas attack on October 7, Russia has taken a distinctly pro-Hamas line, and President Vladimir Putin even linked the fate of Russia and the fate of the Palestinian people. This position stems from an approach embraced by Putin whereby the world is transitioning from a unipolar to a multipolar order. According to this approach, Israel belongs to the West, led by the United States, and as such is part of the pole that is hostile to Russia. The discourse among Russian academics, opinion makers, and foreign policy experts...
The riots at the airport in Dagestan, Russia, in late October, like the Prigozhin revolt, exposed a fundamental problem of the Russian regime: the security and policing mechanisms do not act effectively against phenomena that were not defined in advance as a threat to the regime. Against the backdrop of increasing domestic problems in Russia that remain unaddressed, tensions that have the potential to turn into protests are mounting. In some cases, the nature of the problem (for example, the fate of Russian men drafted to fight in...
