All aboard

Jamestown's Andrew McGregor has published a study of the use of armoured trains in the North Caucasus conflict:

First used for such purposes in the American Civil War, armored trains and the tactics associated with their use were most fully developed in the vast expanses of Russia, where they were used in large numbers in World War One, the Red-White Civil War of 1917-22 (including extensive operations in the Caucasus), the Second World War and the Sino-Soviet border conflict of the 1960’s. More recently, Russian armored trains were deployed to secure railway lines against Azeri nationalists during the 1990 Soviet military intervention in Baku. Now Russia’s defense ministry has announced the return of armored trains for use against Islamist insurgents in the North Caucasus.

Deals and deterrents

Jamestown's Eurasia blog has the condensed summary of a recent interview with Jamestown senior analyst Pavel Felgenhauer on topics that include U.S.-Russian relations under the Obama administration, the controversy surrounding the pending sale of S-300 advanced air defence systems to Iran by Russia, and the role played in it by the UAV deal with Israel, the pace and content of the military reforms undertaken by Russia's Defence Minister Serdyukov, and the possibilty of a resumption of hostilities in Georgia.