Analysis and Assessment of Russian Crime and Security
Today (25 May 2026) it has emerged that since 22 May, former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Police Colonel General Vitaly Shulika has been appointed Deputy Minister of Defence, replacing Oleg Savelyev, who had served in that role since May 2024. Who? And so what? Shulika was born in Krasnodar in 1970, where he [ ]
Is former Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu getting worried? The arrest of a longtime associate sees a major corruption investigation within the defence ministry getting closer and closer to him. Yet Shoigu is a friend of Putin’s, something that until now meant impunity. If times are changing, many of the president’s cronies will be shocked, [ ]
Yesterday’s resignation of Andrii Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, strong right hand and eminence grise, is clearly a seismic shock to Ukrainian politics. In many ways especially as Zelensky was so often the ‘super foreign minister’ jetting from one foreign capital to the next to beg, cajole, encourage and browbeat allies to maintain their [ ]
On 19 August 2025, the 24th anniversary of the 1991 August Coup, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda ran an article New Twist in the GKChP case: Kryuchkov was in collusion with Yeltsin, planning to make him president of the USSR (Новый поворот в деле ГКЧП: Крючков был в сговоре с Ельциным, собираясь сделать его президентом СССР). [ ]
Out in the UK (hardback/audiobook/ebook) on 7 August
This is a summary of the discussion at the latest of the current series of online Strategic Competition Seminar Series (SCSS) webinars held on 9 December 2024 by the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies (GCMC) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The summary reflects the overall tenor of the discussion, and no specific element necessarily should be presumed [ ]
While my own In Moscow’s Shadows podcast is still going strong, of late I seem to have been featuring on a lot of other people’s, so here is a quick rundown of some (which all too often also seem to be videos…). Perversely, let me encourage you not to listen to them all, or at [ ]
Various reports I have written over the years under the auspices of my consultancy Mayak Intelligence are now being posted on its site, here. So far there are three: More will follow, and you re welcome to use them, but please do respect copyright and cite the original whe