Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Author-Name:Zatsepin Vasily Author-Name-First: Vasily Author-Name-Last:Zatsepin Author-Workplace-Name: Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy Author-Name:Tsymbal Vitaly Author-Name-First: Vitaly Author-Name-Last:Tsymbal Author-Workplace-Name: Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy Title: Military economics and military reform in Russia in 2015 Abstract: Unlike previous years, the findings of analysis of Russia’s military economics and policy in 2015 fail to match what is perceived as absolute peacetime. The IISS, a world-leading authority on global security, argues that Russia is conducting a so-called hybrid warfare. The published views of western experts on hybrid warfare reflect the events occurred in Ukraine over the last two years. The spring of 2015 saw changes in accusations against Russia following Russia’s air strikes and cruise missiles strikes on the positions of ISIS terrorists in Syria. The fact that Russia is conducting special-purpose military operations is indisputable. Russia took the terrorist attack that brought down the Russian plane in Egypt, killing all 224 Russian passengers on board, as military assault against Russia’s nationals, thus forcing Russia to introduce retaliatory military counteractions against not only the ISIS in Syria but also against organizers and sponsors of terrorism. Later there were acts of terrorism in France, that prompted the French government to join the war against the ISIS, acting in conjunction with Russia and with a few other countries. Being unhappy with these developments, the Turkish government prepared the shoot down of a Russian military jet along the Syrian border. Russia responded with economic countersanctions, warning more sanctions could follow. Therefore, it appears logical that a new version of the Russian Federation National Security Strategy (Executive Order of the President No. 683 dated December 31, 2015) was approved on the very last day of 2015 . Classification-JEL: D74, F52, H56, F51 Keywords: Russian economy, military-industrial complex, military reform, defense order, military procurement, defense control Creation-Date: 2016 Revision-Date:2016 Publication-Status: Published in RUSSIAN ECONOMY IN 2015 TRENDS AND OUTLOOKS (ISSUE 37) Length: 14 File-URL: https://www.iep.ru/files/RePEc/gai/ppaper/ppaper-2016-239.pdf File-Format: application/pdf File-Function: Revised version, 2016 Handle: RePEc:gai:ppaper:ppaper-2016-239