Declaring that Russia would annex four regions of Ukraine, which the West rejects as illegal, the Russian president accused the U.S. and its allies of “despotism’’ and “Satanism.’’

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow did everything it could to maintain its status as a superpower — including as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. When it became clear that Russia could not claim a right to the spot as an economic power, it instead defined its greatness in military terms.

Over the decades, Russia’s army has been touted as one of the strongest in the world. Indeed, a nuclear-armed military. As if to remind the world of this fact, President Vladimir Putin has regularly treated both Russians and the world to perfectly choreographed parades and military exercises.

How powerful an army really is, however, cannot be demonstrated by goose-stepping on the Red Square, but on the battlefield. Now, the Russians are being shown up by a much smaller army in Ukraine. How can that be?

How big is Putin’s army?

On paper, the Russian armed forces claim to have 1 million soldiers, and in the near future 1.1 million, according to Margarete Klein of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. But the real size is much smaller, she told DW.

A large number of the deployable Russian units have already been used in Ukraine, she said. “They have suffered major losses in terms of soldiers killed or injured.”

Exact casualty numbers are difficult to determine, but US intelligence believes Russia has suffered at least tens of thousands of dead and wounded.

The idea that Russia has infinite reserves of deployable soldiers is a far cry from reality, said George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank. He added that the course the war has taken so far proves that the world has long overestimated the strength of the Russian army. The goal, he said, of Putin’s recent partial mobilization push is only to maintain the current front line after all the losses.

Sent to the front without training or equipment

The state of Russia’s military strength can also be illustrated by the groups of people currently being drafted. “There are men there who are over 50-years old and have health problems,” Barros said. This observation has been backed up by numerous stories and videos posted to social media.

Reservists need to be trained and equipped before they deploy to war, Barros explained. However, many will now receive only one or two months of training, which is far from enough. Others are even being sent to the front lines without any training or equipment, he said, adding that the only thing these conditions are likely to accomplish is increasing the casualty numbers.

According to US-based Russian security expert Pavel Luzin, Ukraine will never abandon the fight, even as Putin’s henchman carry out sham referendums in the east of the country. Furthermore, he said, Russia’s arms industry is not in a position to provide significant amounts of supplies in the short-term, certainly not for those currently being drafted. Margarete Klein added that they are now using old weapons and bullets that have been in storage since Soviet times.

Then again it is unclear how many of these stored weapons have already been sold as result of corruption, or if they are even in working order anymore. The Russian arms industry lacks the necessary microchips for high-precision weapons and other spare parts, Klein said.

The only advantage Russia has really is a greater population at its disposal to draft into the military. However, as Barros pointed out, an army needs more than soldiers to be successful. It needs modern weapons, good training, leadership, motivation, and logistical planning.

“Simply putting more men on the front lines is not going to solve the problem the Russians have,” the defense expert said. The well-trained and well-equipped mercenaries have also not had the desired impact, Barros added.

Intimidating the West with talk of nuclear weapons

Experts agree that using the specter of nuclear weapons is meant to intimidate the West. “This threat is not new,” said Klein. The goal, she said, is to undermine the West’s support for Ukraine. Militarily, the use of nuclear weapons would achieve nothing. They could have some use politically, but Klein believes that their deployment is unlikely given that it would almost certainly lose Russia the support of key allies China and India.

However, other experts, such as Ted Galen Carpenter of the Cato Institute in Washington, point out that “if Putin is faced with the choice of either using nuclear weapons or having to answer for his crimes in an international court, he will choose the nuclear option.”

Carpenter said that Putin still wants to end the conflict quickly, and that if Ukraine and West showed a willingness to negotiate, Moscow would probably come to the table.

On the other hand, Klein, Barros, and Luzin all agreed that the war will only really come to an end if the West either abandons Ukraine or Putin suffers a total defeat.

This piece was originally published in German.

The Justice Department on Thursday accused an Army doctor and a Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist of conspiring to provide the Russian government with medical information about U.S. soldiers and their relatives.

The indictment names Jamie Lee Henry, an Army major at Fort Bragg who had a secret security clearance, and Henry’s spouse, Anna Gabrielian, a Russian-speaker who is affiliated with Johns Hopkins, according to a Hopkins webpage.

They are charged with offering sensitive information to an undercover FBI agent who was posing as a representative of the Russian Embassy.

The indictment says the FBI learned that Gabrielian had volunteered assistance to Russia through its embassy in Washington. 

Maj. Jamie Lee Henry.MSNBC

During an Aug. 17 meeting in a Baltimore hotel room, Gabrielian told the undercover FBI agent “she was motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail,” the indictment alleges.

Gabrielian told the agent that she had reached out to the Russian Embassy by email and phone, offering Russia assistance from both her and her spouse, Henry, the indictment says.

She told the agent that although Henry knew she was reaching out to the Russian Embassy on both their behalf, she did not mention Henry’s name in her interactions with the Russian Embassy, and so Henry could claim lack of awareness.

The indictment refers to Henry as male, but Henry in 2015 went public as the first openly transgender Army officer. Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Baltimore, said Henry referred to himself as a male in interactions with the undercover FBI agent.

Later on Aug. 17, Gabrielian and Henry met with the undercover agent, the indictment says. According to the indictment, Henry described a commitment to assisting Russia and had looked into volunteering to join the Russian army after the conflict in Ukraine began, but Russia wanted people with combat experience and Henry did not have any. The indictment says Henry added, “the way I am viewing what is going on in Ukraine now, is that the United States is using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia.” 

On Aug. 31, according to the indictment, the FBI agent met Gabrielian and Henry at a hotel in Gaithersburg, Maryland, near Washington, D.C.

Gabrielian gave the agent medical information about the spouse of a person employed by the Office of Naval Intelligence — and highlighted a medical issue that Russia could exploit, the indictment says.

Henry allegedly provided information on at least five individuals who were patients at Fort Bragg, including a retired Army officer, a current Department of Defense employee, the spouse of a U.S. Army veteran, and two spouses of deceased U.S. Army veterans.

Court records say Gabrielian and Henry have been arrested — it was unclear whether they have lawyers.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison on the conspiracy charge and a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for each count of disclosing health information.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Johns Hopkins Medicine said, “We were shocked to learn about this news this morning and intend to fully cooperate with investigators.”

Майора-трансгендера Джейми Ли Генри и его жену обвиняют в намерении передать России данные о здоровье военнослужащих США. Они попались, предложив служебную информацию агенту ФБР под прикрытием.

A Maryland anesthesiologist and her U.S. Army doctor spouse have been charged with trying to help Russia in its war against Ukraine with medical records that they thought Moscow could exploit, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland said Thursday.

The records never made it to Moscow. But they were given to an undercover FBI agent who received information about patients, including at least five at Fort Bragg, the U.S. Army base in North Carolina, federal authorities said.

One of the patients was married to an employee of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the federal indictment said. The undercover agent was told that the spouse had a medical issue that Russia could use to its advantage.

Federal authorities identified the anesthesiologist as Anna Gabrielian, 36, of Rockville, who works at an unidentified Baltimore medical facility. She is married to Jamie Lee Henry, 39, who was a U.S. Army major and internist at Fort Bragg.

Gabrielian and Henry each face charges of conspiracy and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information.

The federal indictment does not describe what ties, if any, the couple has to Russia. But according to the indictment, Gabrielian told the agent she was “motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail.”

The undercover agent posed as someone from the Russian embassy and first approached Gabrielian in August, the indictment said. During their first meeting, Gabrielian said she had previously contacted the Russian Embassy by email and phone to offer her and Henry’s assistance.

According to the indictment, Gabrielian said Henry could provide information regarding how the U.S. military establishes hospitals in war conditions as well as information about previous training the U.S. provided to Ukraine.

Henry later met with the agent and claimed to have volunteered to join the Russian military after the invasion but was told the Russians only wanted people with combat experience, the indictment stated. Henry also said the U.S. was using “Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia.”

“My point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want,” the indictment quoted Henry as saying. “At that point, I’ll have some ethical issues I have to work through.”

Gabrielian allegedly told the agent that if she was at risk of arrest, she wanted her and Henry’s children to “have a nice flight to Turkey to go on vacation because I don’t want to end in jail here with my kids being hostages over my head.”

Court records do not list attorneys for Gabrielian or Henry, although federal officials said both were expected to appear in court on Thursday.

Each faces a total of up to 15 years in prison if convicted, although federal sentences are typically less than the maximum, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland said.

A US Army doctor and their anaesthetist wife have been arrested in connection with a plot to hand over classified documents to the Russian government.

An indictment published by the US Justice Department from the names Jamie Lee Henry, an Army major at Fort Bragg who had a secret security clearance, and Henry’s wife, Russian-speaking anaesthetist Anna Gabrielian.

The indictment describes Henry as male, although Henry had gone public in 2015 as the first openly transgender Army officer.

READ MORE: ‘Russian spy’ couple living in Hawaii ‘stole dead babies’ identities’, say prosecutors

Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office in Baltimore, told NBC News that Henry had identified himself as a male during a meeting with an undercover FBI agent.

Gabrielian said she didn’t care what laws she broke, and was loyal to Russia
(Image: US Army)

The two would-be spies were snared in a sting operation when they agreed to pass “individually identifiable health information,” about US military intelligence personnel to the undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian government employee.

The FBI had been alerted to the pair’s scheme to betray the US in August after Henry and Gabrielian contacted the Russian embassy in Washington DC, and an agent was dispatched to contact them.

Henry told the agent that after the start of the invasion of Ukraine he had wanted to help Russia any way he could.

Henry went public in 2015 as the first openly transgender Army officer
(Image: US Army)

He told them: “The way I am viewing what is going on in Ukraine now, is that the United States is using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia.”

However Gabrielian told the agent that Henry was a “coward” who was afraid of breaking the strict laws about medical confidentiality, while she didn’t care about the law and broke it “all the time”.

The couple met the undercover agent in a Baltimore hotel where Gabrielian told the undercover FBI agent “she was motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail,”

Jamie Lee Henry had access to confidential documents at Fort Bragg
(Image: REUTERS)

During the meeting, Henry is alleged to have told the undercover FBI operative: “My point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want”, adding . “At that point, I’ll have some ethical issues I’ll have to work through.”

“You’ll work through those ethical issues,” Gabrielian allegedly replied.

If convicted, the couple face a maximum of five years in jail for conspiracy and a further ten years for each count of disclosing individually identifiable health information.

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