Just a quick note that another in my sporadic series of vlogs is up on my YouTuble channel – you can find this one here. It’s a little longer than most, in part because I’m trying to tease out why Alexei Navalny chose to debate with nationalist militant and likely war criminal Igor Girkin (‘Strelkov’) and why what was a pretty dull debate stuck with me. Spoiler alert: the answer? Because in a way this is precisely what real politics are about, and that’s faintly encouraging.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on July 29, 2017
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2017/07/29/vlog-navalny-and-strelkov-the-disappointing-debate-that-was-what-politics-is-all-about/
Behind a paywall, I’m afraid, but my latest piece on the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya) has come out in the latest Jane’s Intelligence Review (August 2017), including a pretty extensive order of battle, with which I am quite pleased. Here, with permission, are the Key Points:
Posted by Mark Galeotti on July 14, 2017
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2017/07/14/iron-fist-the-rosgvardiya/
A big case opened yesterday in New York, with 33 people being charged with membership of a Eurasian organised crime group (the “Shulaya Enterprise”) and a wide range of charges, from murder-for-hire and gambling fraud to, intriguingly enough, stealing 10,000 pounds of chocolates (gangsters after my own heart). I duplicate the press release below and look forward to following the case, but a few points leapt out at once:
Razhden Shulaya, also known as “Roma” and “Brother,” the vor v zakone (not “zakonei”) considered to be the boss of the outfit, was arrested in Lithuania as part of a major crack-down on Georgian gangsters in 2013. I note now that he has been living in Edgewater, NJ. I’ll be curious to hear how a guy not only arrested in Europe but well known previously in St Petersburg as a protégé of major crime figure Zakhary Kalashov and his smotryashchyi or “watcher” in that city, got from a Lithuanian holding cell to the States…
The not-so-Russian-“Russians”: This is called a “Russian Crime Syndicate” but the boss is Georgian, and a quick glance through the names of the accused shows a mix of Georgian, Russian, Armenian and even Central Asian names, with Georgians very much predominating. This is characteristic of modern Eurasian organised crime groups in the States, in particular, but it is worth stepping beyond the ROC cliché. I appreciate this is just a press release, but still there’s no harm in a press release being accurate. (And don’t get me started on the mythical “Brothers’ Circle”…)
Imagination is one of these gangs’ hallmarks; as I told Ben Weiser of the NYT, I was not taken aback by the more outré gambits such as “a scheme to defraud casinos with a hacking device that predicted the behaviour of particular models of electronic slot machines.” Rather, “what surprises me actually is they were still involved in the traditional types of crime.” Instead of trying to compete in crowded and fiercely-defended markets such as drug-dealing on the streets, these gangs often seek to identify new criminal opportunities, especially involving fraud and technology.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on June 8, 2017
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2017/06/08/the-shulaya-enterprise-organised-crime-bust-in-new-york/
A new Presidential Decree with the snappy title ‘On Approval of Regulations of the Operational-Territorial Unification of forces of the National Guard of the Russian Federation‘ has suddenly caused something of a fuss because of a clause which allows the president to subordinate military units to the Rosgvardiya. From Versiya, for example, there came the outraged cry that “Nothing like this has happened in the country’s history” and that it was “impossible to imagine” the “Russian imperial army commanding the gendarmes, and NKVD the Red Army.” In Ezhednevnyi zhurnal, the warning was that “it has become clear that sooner or later war plans require the use of troops against the population. Russian officers do not want to shoot at their fellow. And the officers of the General Staff, it seems, did their best to slow down the adoption of the policy documents. But the Kremlin was anxious. And the National Guard conquered the army.”
Of course the creation of the National Guard from the basis of the MVD’s Interior Troops and public order forces was a worrying sign of the paranoias of the Kremlin. It is a force of some 180,000-190,000 security troops and special police, by the way, not 400,000 – there are perhaps as many private security officers, but they are not all armed, are scattered around the country, and in some cases are other Rosgvardiya officers moonlighting in a second job. It was clearly established both in case the Kremlin wants to break heads on the streets, and also to represent an additional obstacle to any elite political coup.
But let’s not get caught up in the hyperbole. The present presidential decree does indeed say that the president has the right to transfer army units to Rosgvardiya command for specific operations at home. However, the decree starts by enumerating the existing decrees relating to the MVD Interior Troops that it supersedes. One is the 2005 decree ‘On Approval of Regulations of the Operational-Territorial Unification of the Interior Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russian Federation,’ as amended. And guess what: that decree allowed the president to subordinate military units to the Interior Troops…
In other words, this was just a piece of legislative tidying-up, find+replacing National Guard for Interior Troops. Not so unprecedented, not so impossible to imagine, not demonstrating any sudden new bloodlust. And I very much doubt the General Staff were trying to fight it off.
Sure, there are always grounds for concern, especially when figures such as blowhard ex-general and Rosgvardiya hanger-on Yuri Baluevskii trumpet how Russia is beleaguered by Western attempts at regime change through coloured revolutions. But sadly this is nothing new and even reflected in Russia’s national security doctrine. This is a regime which fears and mistrusts its people, and which is at least willing to contemplate the use of violence to maintain power. But at the same time, let’s not fall prey to the temptation to think the sky is breaking every time the thunder peals.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on June 6, 2017
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2017/06/06/is-the-russian-national-guard-suddenly-acquiring-sweeping-new-powers-no-not-so-much/
My latest report for the ECFR is out. While I am waiting for the bidding war for the film rights, I’ll settle for pointing people in its direction – you can download it free here – and offer up the summary:
I confess I am pleased with the ‘Russian-based organised crime‘ notion, that I think fills an ontological niche, in that it is clear that there is a difference between those gangs which still have strong connections to Russia — who could as easily be Georgians, or Dagestanis, or whoever — and those who have essentially moved out of the country. It is the former who are especially susceptible to use by the Russian security apparatus, and who genuinely worry me. (And yes, I’m also pleased with the title…)
Posted by Mark Galeotti on April 18, 2017
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2017/04/18/crimintern-how-the-kremlin-uses-russias-criminal-networks-in-europe/
The use of chemical weapons against civilians cannot continue with impunity, but is a 50-missile strike the right response? My thought is that it is not a great response – but that in the circumstances nothing better was available. (Though at almost $15 million, an expensive one.)
First of all, such a one-off strike is unlikely to be militarily decisive, even if it has made a real dent in the Assad regime’s airpower advantage. It is essentially more symbolic than kinetic, an act of communication, drawing red lines and reiterating that the USA is a serious force (and putting paid to the silly claims that Russia has become the regional hegemon in the Middle East).
That’s not at all a bad thing, but the question is what the message was meant to be, and how it is received, and that depends heavily on Moscow.
Its initial response was to huff and puff and call it unprovoked aggression, of course; it could do nothing less. But it is noticeable that its much-vaunted air defence systems – which could have been deployed against the Tomahawk missiles although not take all 50 out – was not even activated. Moscow might not like Washington’s response, but nor was it willing to stand in the way of it. That is a heartening sign of realism.
And how does Damascus respond? The chemical attack was as politically stupid as it was morally bankrupt, suggesting either that Assad’s regime is tone deaf (not impossible) or that it had some more nefarious intent, precisely to try and force a response in the hope of solidifying Russian support (a little conspiratorial, but not impossible).
Much depends on the backchannel messages from Moscow to Damascus. Will they be “don’t worry, this was just a one-off, let business continue as usual, but lay off the chemicals” or “what the hell were you doing, stop making this worse for us all”? Obviously no one will tell us openly, but we should be able to divine from what happens next whether the Russians are in control or not (and usually, to be honest, imperial backers have at best imperfect control of their supposed clients and proxies) and whether tactical successes on the ground mean more to them than the wider geopolitical context.
With Tillerson due in Moscow next week, this is an opportunity for Moscow to show some kind of flexibility and willingness to come out of the trenches. Assad’s move allows them the cover to withdraw slightly from him. If they are willing to take it. A big if. My money, sadly, on their not being willing or able to make the move.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on April 7, 2017
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/a-few-quick-and-first-thoughts-on-the-us-airstrike-on-syria/
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