The Russian Military into the 21st Century

This work attempts to clarify the major problems facing Russia's armed forces in the present and immediate future. Russia's military has been in decline since the end of the Cold War. Its fledgling democracy and struggling economy have also served as an inertial drag on military reform. Nevertheless, Russia has a strong military tradition dating back to Tsarist times, and that tradition includes World War II and Cold War achievements of the Soviet military still highly regarded by many Russians. Contributors explain the major challenges facing Russian defence and security policy with respect to possible adversaries beyond Russia's borders and within Russia herself. Russia has and will continue to have serious security problems outside of, and within, its state borders. These problems include political risings within the country, and the fragile roots of its contemporary experiment with democracy and free market economics. Unless Russia finds a way to deal with its system of addiction and corruption, it will neither reform its military nor its policy.