Ten articles today on Russia, ranging from the mundane to the bizarre.

I’ll start with the bizarre, or at least surprising, story from Business Insider. It says that Russian troops are massing near the border to the Republic of Georgia, ready to move to Armenia to respond to any Israeli and/or U.S. attack on Iran. I say the article is bizarre because this is the only article (picked up by a number of sites, I must admit) I’ve seen about this. Maybe it’s a huge scoop.

I also found an interesting Christian Science Monitor story about Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin and the challenges he’ll face at home and abroad as soon as he takes office on may 7.

Here is article on Russia’s “willingness” to talk with Syrian opposition groups and here is an opinion piece on Russia’s (and China’s) “victory” on the Syrian issue and how that signals America’s decline.

Russia is apparently busy on the rocket and missile front, as suggested by three DefenceTalk articles on various Russian weapons systems: S-400 Missiles deployed in Russia’s Baltic Fleet, a new thermobaric rocket, and the S-500, a new generation surface-to-air missile system.

Atlantic Sentinel, via Wikistrat, has an interesting story on a Baltic port to be built for shipping oil from the Urals.

Moscow Times has a report on ongoing unrest, at least among Russia’s communists and other opposition groups, about the Russian government’s plan to let NATO use a Russian airport to help move people and equipment out of Afghanistan.

And for the mundane, but also a bit odd – the German sports clothing company Adidas has been fined for late delivery of sports uniforms and shoes to the Russian Army, according to this report by Europe Online.

Related articles

• Focus on Europe: Russia (brucekanderson.com)