ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Written by Daniel Deiss and Igor Pejic Spreading from the Caspian Sea in the West to China in the East, occupying more than one million square miles, Kazakhstan is one of the largest countries in the world with the population only about 17 million consists of many ethnic groups: Kazakh 51%; Russian 32%; Ukrainian 5%; German 2%; Tatar 2%; Uzbek 13%. Today country becomes a core security and geostrategic factor in the Central Asia region. After the fall of the Soviet Union the country’s military had some staggering periods, but today Kazakhstan’s armed forces meet the highest professional standards mostly thanks to Russia and CSTO as well as to the good national military governance. The cumulative military budget 2013-2015 has reached almost seven billion dollars. The Kazakhstan’s army modernization is based on a domestic military industry. As the President Nursultan Nazarbayev stated: “about 70% of the modern weapons and equipment supplied to the army in 2015 should be produced by the

The UN Security Council is expected to pass the French resolution to fight the ‘common enemy’ as China and Russia are thought unlikely to use their vetoes AFP/Getty World powers are poised to forge a single resolution at the United Nations Security Council to declare a common war against Isis and “eradicate” jihadists in Iraq and Syria, The Independent understands. The attacks in Paris as well as the downing of the Russian jet over the Sinai Peninsula have galvanised a hitherto divided Security Council. And a new reality exists: with its alleged execution this week of a Chinese national, Isis has now slaughtered citizens of all five permanent Security Council members. French officials said they were formally submitting a draft resolution to the Security Council, pushing aside a competing draft offered by Russia earlier this week. It could be adopted as early as Friday or over the weekend. The French manoeuvre reflected confidence that its resolution would not provoke Russian or

By The Saker Just has I had been predicting for a couple of weeks, Russia did dramatically increase the pace of her anti-Daesh operations. First, Russia has used all her most powerful long-range aviation bombers (Tu-22M3, Tu-95MC and even Tu-160) to strike Daesh targets with cruise missiles and gravity bombs. Look at this footage which really says it all: Second, Russia has announced that 25 long range bombers will be fully allocated to the anti-Daesh campaign. Third, the Russian military has announced that another 37 aircraft will be send to reinforce the Russian contingent in Syria (including the most advanced aircraft in the Russian inventory, the SU-34). The combination of these long-range bombers from Russia and additional 37 aircraft in Syria will more than double the strike potential of the Russian military against Daesh. Thus, this is a major expansion of Russian operations against Daesh. Finally, Putin has declared that he has ordered the Russian naval task force to ‘coopera

Islamic State has a branch devoted to creating chemical weapons, AP reports, citing Iraqi and US officials. Earlier, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls also warned that Islamic State could potentially use chemical or biological weapons in its attacks. A special branch has been set up by Islamic State to develop chemical weapon for the terrorist group using scientists from Iraq and Syria as well as other countries in the region, AP reported, citing Iraqi and US intelligence sources. Although Islamic State has already used mustard gas on the battlefield, US intelligence agencies are skeptical about the terrorists’ capabilities to produce sophisticated chemical weapons suited for a potential terrorist attack. At the same time, Iraqi officials warned that control over vast territories in Iraq and Syria gives the militants many opportunities for experiments, leaving Iraq’s forces largely unaware of the Islamic State actions. "They [Islamic State] now have complete freedom to select loc

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has executed a Chinese national in the Middle East. The ministry has vowed to bring the perpetrators “to justice.” China has confirmed the identity of the victim as Fan Jinghui. He had been previously identified by the terrorists as a 50-year-old freelance consultant from Beijing. The man was apparently featured in the terrorist group’s magazine back in September, where he was mockingly put up for“sale” along with a Norwegian hostage. Both China and Norway refused to pay the ransom that the terrorists had demanded. Beijing is now saying that it had attempted to rescue the “cruelly murdered” Chinese national. “The Chinese government strongly condemns this savage act devoid of humanity and will certainly bring the criminals to justice,” the ministry said in a statement quoted by Reuters. “The Chinese government will resolutely oppose all forms of terrorism, and resolutely strike at any violent t

The so-called Islamic State should have learned by now: they've picked a fight against the wrong guys. We have entered "take no prisoners" territory. For Russia, now all the gloves are off. Especially after online terrorist magazine Dabiq published a photo of the alleged bomb that downed the Metrojet: a crude device inside a can of Schweppes Gold, placed under a passenger seat. Also published were photos of passports of Russian victims, allegedly taken "by the mujahedeen." Their collective fate was sealed the minute the Director of the Federal Security Service Aleksandr Bortnikov told President Putin, about the Metrojet crash on October 31 in Egypt that: “We can say with confidence that this was a terrorist act.” Caliphate goons may run – in the deserts of ‘Syraq’ and beyond - but they can’t hide, as per Russia’s presidential message:“We will search for them everywhere - wherever they are hiding. We will find them in any spot on the planet and we will pu

During the summit, “I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told the journalists. Putin also spoke of the urgent need to curb the illegal oil trade by IS. "I’ve shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products," he said. “The motorcade of refueling vehicles stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to 5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon," Putin added, comparing the convoy to gas and oil pipeline systems. It’s not the right time to try and figure out which country is more and which is less effective in the battle with Islamic State, as now a united international effort is needed against the terrorist group, Putin said. Put