title: Foreword
abstract: In recent years, there has been much interest in Russian military modernization due to Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and activity in eastern Ukraine, more assertive behavior along its borders, successful bolstering of the Syrian regime, and short deployment to Kazakhstan in January 2022 to quell civil unrest. Given these successes, the Russian military has been proffered as an elite military force filled with Special Operations Forces who were the "polite people" or "little g
journal: Lynne Rienner Publishers eBooks