March 27, 2024

An Air Self Defense


An Air Self Defense
An artist's impression of Shahed 136 drones swarming an airport. Khamenei.ir, Wikimedia Commons

Russian companies are constructing their own air defense systems amid increasing drone threats. Nearly 300 tenders for the acquisition of counter-UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) have been identified, according to independent investigative outlet Vazhniye Istori. Buyers include Rosneft, Lukoil, Bashneft, Slavneft, Transneft, and Rosseti.

To safeguard their enterprises, the state-owned Rosneft, the largest Russian oil company, intends to deploy portable anti-UAV systems, anti-drone guns, stationary systems for electronic detection and suppression of drones, as well as protective structures such as nets stretched between masts to detain and immobilize UAVs. Energy company Rosseti also employs grids, concrete blocks, and electronic detection systems at its substations.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory and annexed Crimea commenced in mid-June 2022, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. By the end of August 2023, regional authorities reported 511 drone attacks. The frequency of attacks surged in March 2024, with almost 40–50 drones targeting Russia nightly. Many of these attacks target energy facilities. By February 8, 2024, at least six major Russian oil refineries had been targeted.

Measures adopted by Russian companies might prove inadequate against drones. Experts interviewed by Vazhniye Istori journalists suggest that domestically-made Ukrainian drones are behind the attacks. These UAVs are similar to the Iranian Shahed, which Russia actively employs. These experts argue that neither nets nor anti-drone guns, designed to disrupt communication with operators, are effective against such drones.

For instance, Syzran Oil Refinery adopted nets and a portable drone suppression complex in early 2023. Despite these efforts, the refinery fell victim to a successful drone attack on March 16, 2024.

You Might Also Like

Nationalize It
  • March 14, 2024

Nationalize It

Over the past two years, 180 private companies have been taken over by the Russian state.
Two Years
  • February 22, 2024

Two Years

Putin has gotten nothing he wanted from his War on Ukraine.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955