Episode 19: Adversarial Strategy: Russia’s Preparations for a Long War
We look at how Russia’s armed forces are learning lessons from combat and examine Moscow’s ambitions in its war against Ukraine.
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine is part of a long-term, much larger project of turning Russia into a regional hegemon with influence on other continents, while it builds relationships with China and others who may help its goals.
In this episode, Dr Andrew Monaghan, RUSI Senior Associate Fellow, unravels the threat and the depth of Russian long-term preparation for war.
Dr Monaghan is a senior British expert on Russia with extensive publications. He has directed research on Russia at NATO’s Research Division in Rome, at Oxford University's Changing Character War Centre, and has worked at the UK's Defence Academy and Chatham House. He holds his PhD from the Department of War Studies, King's College London.
Recommended reading
Monaghan, Andrew: Dealing with the Russians (US Army War College Press, 2019).
Monaghan, Andrew: Russian Grand Strategy in the Global Power Competition (Manchester University Press, 2022).
Monaghan, Andrew: The New Politics of Russia – Interpreting Change (2nd edn: Manchester University Press, 2024).
Monaghan, Andrew: Blitzkrieg and the Russian Art of War (Manchester University Press, 2025).
Persson, Gudrun: Russian Military Thought: The Evolution of Strategy since the Crimean War (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2025).
Rumer, Eugene: "How Putin’s War Became Russia’s War", Foreign Affairs 9 (2023).
Film: Mr Nobody against Putin, Dir. David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin. ZDF/Arte and BBC, 2025.
Gareev, Makhmut: If War Comes Tomorrow?: The Contours of Future Armed Conflict (Cass Series on Soviet Military Theory and Practice), Routledge, 1998.
FEATURING
Professor Beatrice Heuser
RUSI Senior Associate Fellow, Military Sciences
Paul O’Neill CBE
RUSI Senior Associate Fellow, Military Sciences
