ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Anastassios Adamopoulos - Following the controversial takedown of a Russian Air Force aircraft by Turkish F-16 authorities, Wikileaks has released figures on Turkish violations of Greek airspace. A Wikileaks tweet, citing data compiled by the University of Thessaly, based on Greek military records, alleges that Turkey violated Greek airspace 2,444 times in 2014 alone, while there are 636 such violations in 2013. A United States classified cable, also released by Wikileaks on Tuesday, reports that in June 2005, the then Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis told the American Ambassador that Turkish aircrafts did not have to fly 40 times per day over disputed airspace to get their political point across and could instead limit it down to one flight per week. Greek Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Kotzias held a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Lavrov on Tuesday evening, that included discussions on Tuesday’s incident as well as the war in Syria,

Are we at risk of being victims or casualties in a government cyberwar? In the first of this three-part series, we explore what the experts say about the current state of cyberwar -- and what it means to IT departments everywhere. Insider Threats: 10 Ways To Protect Your Data(Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Cyberwar is an ugly word, not only because of what it implies, but because the term is ill-defined. It's suggestive of digital attacks alone. That's simply not the case. It is far more likely that cyberattacks would be only one form of aggression in the otherwise familiar hells of war. The biggest question of all, for corporations and citizens alike, is: Are we here in the US simply in the midst of informal nation-state aggression, or are we in a full-fledged cyberwar? The distinction between the two situations may not matter for IT's purposes, since neither poses a serious threat to corporations. Nonetheless, it's important to understand the nature of th

A Russian Su-24 front-line bomber jet takes off at Latakia airport, Syria. © Dmitriy Vinogradov / Sputnik A Russian Su-24M tactical bomber was brought down over Syria by a Turkish Air Force fighter jet on Tuesday. Moscow and Ankara have put forward conflicting versions of what happened, and the circumstances of the crash remain under investigation. This is what is known so far. 1. The Russian jet went down at 9:30am local time on Tuesday “Today at 9:30 the Russian aircraft, which performed combat counterterrorist missions was shot down by an aircraft of the Turkish Air Force,” Russia's Ministry of Defense wrote on its official Facebook page. The ministry added that it considers the action of the Turkish Air Force to be an “unfriendly act.” Defence Attaché at the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Russia was urgently summoned to the Russian Ministry of...Posted by Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation on Tuesday, November 24, 2015 2. It crashed in a rebel-held area i

Russian warplane shot down at Syria-Turkey border LIVE UPDATES Two Su-24 planes approached Turkish airspace on Tuesday morning, a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the 15 members of the UN Security Council said. The Russian planes are described in a document, published by WikiLeaks and Al Jazeera, as aircraft “the nationality of which is unknown.” The letter allegedly from Turkish UN Ambassador Halit Cevik reiterates Ankara’s claim that the two planes were “warned 10 times during a period of five minutes via ‘emergency’ channels” to change direction. “Disregarding these warnings, both planes, at an altitude of 19,000 feet, violated Turkish national airspace to a depth of 1.36 miles and 1.15 miles in length for 17 seconds from 9:24:05 local time,” the leaked document said. One of the planes then left the Turkish airspace, while “plane two was fired at while in Turkish airspace by Turkish F-16s,” Cevik allegedly wrote.  This provided ground for Turkis

Russian tanks armored against anti-tank missiles and ground forces began to enter northern Syria via a military airfield in Aleppo, Lebanese newspaper "As-Safir" affiliated with Hezbollah reported. The newspaper estimated that the airport will be the third in which Russian Air Force aircraft will be deployed. The situation is ongoing. UPDATES to follow ( via ynetnews.com ). 

Vladimir Putins massive,triple-decker war room revealed.November 21, 2015.MOSCOW "Gentlemen. You can't fight in here. This is the war room!"It could have been a scene straight out of "Dr. Strangelove" when President Vladimir V. Putin stepped into the Russian Ministry of Defense's brand new, three-tiered, multibillion-dollar control center this week, for a war briefing that had its fair share of movie-like pageantry.The fortified National Control Defense Center was Putin's first stop after officials confirmed that the Russian charter jet crash that claimed 224 lives last month was the result of an act of terror. On movie-theater-size screens, live broadcasts showed long-range strategic bombers taking off from Russian air bases to fly sorties over Syria. Putin instructed commanders in Syria to "make contact with the French and work with them as allies" as Russia seeks a central role in a proposed anti-terrorist coalition..But the real st

Explosions after airstrikes carried out by Russian Air Force on an Islamic State training camp in the Syrian province of Idlib. © Russian Defence Ministry / AFP Russian airstrikes have torched more than 1,000 tankers taking stolen crude oil to Islamic State refineries. This blow against the jihadists comes as the Russian Air Force has hit 472 terrorist targets in two days in Syria, making 141 sorties. All Russian aircraft have successfully returned to the Khmeimim airbase near Latakia, Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said in a daily briefing. In the last two days, Russian warplanes have been conducting active supplemental reconnaissance, inflicting pinpoint airstrikes on newly exposed targets, he added. “Russian bombers taking off from the Khmeimim airbase flew on combat missions to destroy tanker convoys and oil refineries in the areas of oilfields in the north and east of Syria,” Konashenkov said. “A major oil depot was destroyed 15 kilo

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