The Russian military transformation and what does it mean for Europe?

The reforms initiated in response to the invasion of Georgia in 2008, have left Russia with a military that would make short work of any of its neighbours, were they left isolated by their Western allies, states ECFR’s guest policy fellow Gustav Gressel in his latest report Russia’s quiet military revolution and what it means for Europe. Despite that, he calls into question Russia’s capacity in Syria. In Gressel’s opinion, many Western policymakers are focusing in vain on the military hardware component of Russian military modernisation. He believes that administrative and training reforms that have trimmed the size of Russia’s top heavy armed forces, producing a group of smaller, more mobile, and more versatile military units are far more important.