Simon Saradzhyan
Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: 617-496-8228
Email: simon_saradzhyan@hks.harvard.edu
AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Presidential Press Service
April 26, 2012
"Global Insider: Russia-China Military Ties Growing Despite Friction"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, World Politics Review
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Russia and China launched their first joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea on Monday. In an email interview, Simon Saradzhyan, a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, discussed military cooperation between Russia and China.
AP Photo
April 2012
"The Dynamics of Russia’s Response to the Piracy Threat"
Journal Article, NATO Science for Peace and Security Studies, issue E: Human and Societal Dynamics, volume 95
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Russia’s Maritime Doctrine describes “maritime shipments” as being of “vital importance” to the country. Maritime shipments have accounted for 60 percent of Russia’s foreign trade shipments in the recent years. However, vessels bearing the Russian flag account only for 4 percent of Russia’s foreign trade shipments. And the Russian fishing fleet remains relatively near to Russia’s shores, not venturing into the Indian and South Pacific Oceans.
AP Photo
March 9, 2012
"Putin Redux"
Op-Ed, International Relations and Security Network
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Nabi Abdullaev
Despite protests over alleged vote-rigging, Vladimir Putin is firmly on track to reclaim the Russian presidency in May. But while Putin is poised to return to the office he vacated in 2008, the country he plans to govern is no longer the same.
AP Photo
March 5, 2012
"Putin election victory doesn't pave an easy path through his third presidential term"
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Nabi Abdullaev
There was little doubt that Vladimir Putin would be elected president of Russia on Sunday and return to the Kremlin for a third term. The Central Elections Committee announced on Monday that Mr. Putin won more than 60 percent of the vote and avoided a second round. But there is also little doubt that the legitimacy of his presidency will be contested during his third term, given the scale of recent protests against his return and strong criticism of the Sunday vote, which some of the opposition leaders and independent observers condemned as unfair and fraudulent.
AP Photo/Sedrak Mkrtchyan, PanARMENIAN
March 2012
"Armenia and China—Case for a Special Partnership"
Journal Article, Noravank Foundation, 21st Century Journal
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
This article by Simon Saradzhyan takes stock of the Armenian-Chinese relations to discern whether Yerevan has been effective in its response to the ongoing rise of the Middle Kingdom as the two countries prepare to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this April.
AP Photo
February 17, 2012
"Putin, the protest movement and political change in Russia"
Journal Article, EU Institute for Security Studies
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Nabi Abdullaev
Few leaders undertake major reforms in either domestic or foreign policy late in their rule, and Vladimir Putin – who seeks to return to the Kremlin this spring for at least six years – hardly wants to be an exception. However, should the disparate groups behind the recent unprecedented protests in Russia develop into an organised movement leading to a sustained increase in public pressure on the Kremlin, then Putin may end up pursuing far more extensive domestic political and economic reforms than he would wish.
AP Photo
February 12, 2012
"Creating a Culture of Giving"
Op-Ed, Moscow Times
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
It is a truism that rapid accumulation of wealth by a privileged minority is bound to generate lasting resentment by the majority. It is the latter that presidential candidate Vladimir Putin decided to use as a campaign issue when he announced last week that Russia's business tycoons should pay a fee to win public acceptance of privatization deals they benefited from in the 1990s.
Read more:http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/creating-a-culture-of-giving/452896.html#ixzz1mHIcXpxf
The Moscow Times
December 20, 2011
"Mutually Assured Stability"
Op-Ed, Moscow Times
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Fall 1991 saw U.S. and Soviet leaders display goodwill by pledging to unilaterally consolidate and reduce their nations' arsenals of tactical nuclear weapons in what became the last milestone in the history of U.S.-Soviet arms control....Twenty years after, however, the two countries still have thousands of tactical nuclear weapons outside any of the existing international arms control regimes," writes Simon Saradzhyan
(AP Photo/ RIA Novosti, Yekaterina Shtukina. pool)
October 5, 2011
"Putin's Comeback: Fast Forward to the Past"
Op-Ed, International Relations and Security Network
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev’s decision to swap jobs may put an end to the diarchy in Russia but is unlikely to lead to any tectonic policy shifts, writes Simon Saradzhyan. Instead, it will further cement the system of ‘managed democracy’, which in time will become so inflexible that it may fail to cope with a protracted crisis.
June 6, 2011
The U.S.-Russia Joint Threat Assessment of Nuclear Terrorism
Report
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom, Yuri Morozov, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Viktor I. Yesin and Pavel S. Zolotarev
Researchers from the United States and Russia have issued a joint assessment of the global threat of nuclear terrorism, warning of a persistent danger that terrorists could obtain or make a nuclear device and use it with catastrophic consequences. The first joint threat assessment by experts from the world’s two major nuclear powers concludes: “If current approaches toward eliminating the threat are not replaced with a sense of urgency and resolve, the question will become not if but when, and on what scale, the first act of nuclear terrorism occurs.”
