ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Russia and nuclear arms have often been a synonymous grouping, due to their history of being the attacker in almost every scenario that has ever involved war or nuclear arms. Russia has continued to become increasingly more powerful, due to the leadership of Putin. His gun-ho approach and lack of mercy, although is extremely unethical and not approved of by many of Russia's neighboring countries it has been extremely effective nonetheless. His seemingly endless supply of money and his superpower military makes them a force that only a select few countries have any chance of handling.  This has not changed as of recently and in fact shows that Putin and Russia are in fact in attack mode once again. Recently, Putin has indicated that he is prepared for war, given the finding that the Kremlin is deploying one of the most powerful missile defense systems in existence and it currently is in the European area.  This missile type is of the Iskander brand, which is very commonl...

International Military Review - Syria, Nov. 30, 2015 The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has deployed newly-arrived Russian T-90 advanced battle tanks to the Southern Aleppo front for the first time. The Russian battle tanks will help to continue the SAA advance on the towns of Kafraya and Al-Fou’aa. T-90 offers the Syrian army several new features to fight ISIS including a 2A46M 125 smoothbore tank gun; a four-stroke V-12 piston engine; and most importantly, the Kontakt-5 explosive reactive armor. Much of the ISIS’ successes in Northern Syria has come from their US manufactured anti-tank TOW missiles. The T-90 Tanks’ armor should be strong enough to endure the impact from the TOW missile. Meanwhile, the SAA, the National Defense Forces (NDF) and Hezbollah are continuing operations against ISIS in other parts of the Aleppo province. They restored full security to Aqulah village and its surroundings on Sund...

Photo: kyivpost.com Moscow has accused Ukraine of abducting two of servicemen from Russia’s Republic of Crimea. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the servicemen were “illegally detained” on November 20 and taken from Crimea to Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region. Moscow called the incident “another act of gross provocation” and called for their “immediate return”. Ukraine argues the detained men – Ensign Maxim Evgenyevich Oditsov and Junior Sergeant Alexander Vyacheslavovich Baranov – are deserters, who defected to Russia from the Ukrainian military in 2014. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) added that the pair were apprehended after crossing into Ukrainian-controlled territory. Considering the wide media coverage of incident, Rusisa’s leadership is pushed to search some diplomatic (or other) way how to return the servicemen back home. Earlier in November, a number of men were arrested in Crimea and accused of plotting acts of sabotage against military objects in the peninsula. ...

Exactly one month after the offensive to liberate Iraq's second largest city of Mosul began, the Iraqi Armed Forces have freed hundreds of villages from the grips of the Islamic State. In the past 48 hours, the pro-government Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) have seized a further six villages from ISIS in the desert terrain west of Mosul; namely Al-Rakrak, Sirwal, Hajarat Al-'Alil, Um Hajarat Al-Suflah, Tall Um Mahyoor, and Mudhhali. After reopening this frontline, the latest advances put the PMU just 26 kilometers from Tal Afar Airbase. Should Iraqi forces seize control of Tal Afar, they will not only have robbed the Islamic State of another city but also sever its only supply line to Mosul. Meanwhile, on the southern flank of Mosul, the Iraqi Federal Police is closing in on Mosul International Airbase, a significant prize only 5 kilometers away. Nearby, government forces also seized Nayfah and Nimrud; the latter represents an ancient Assyrian site. Bloody urban warfare conti...