Pentagon targets Russian archives to uncover details of military losses in recent wars

The US Department of Defense, through its POW/MIA Accounting Agency, has initiated a tender to secure a contractor capable of gaining access to Russia's state military archives.

The tender documents outline that the contractor will be tasked with conducting research within Russia's key military archives, including the Central Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defence (TsAMO), the Russian State Military History Archive (RGVIA), and the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF), Caliber.Az reports per Russian media.

According to the documents, the contractor must provide a research team comprising one research manager and two researchers. The team will be responsible for analyzing materials from various sources, including online databases, libraries, and physical archive documents, based in Moscow. The primary objective of this research, as outlined by unnamed military experts, is to gather information about Russia's losses in recent local wars and conflicts.

The researchers will be required to prepare detailed reports in both Russian and English and engage in negotiations with US and Russian officials, including diplomats and senior military leaders. The tender also emphasizes that the contractor must adhere to strict regulations regarding access to Russian government archival materials, ensuring that all research is conducted in accordance with Russian legal and security requirements.

The deadline for submitting applications for the tender is set for April 5, 2025.

Military experts speculate that the US interest in accessing Russian archives may be driven by the desire to indirectly assess the scale of the Russian military's losses in recent conflicts. Captain 1st rank (reserve) Vasily Dandykin, a military expert, suggested that since the collapse of the USSR, the US has had limited access to Russian materials, but this new initiative could specifically focus on uncovering information about Russia's military casualties in contemporary conflicts.

"The Americans have already accessed certain materials following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it's possible that this research will aim to uncover details about displaced persons, including US citizens who were in Soviet-occupied territories post-World War II. However, the primary goal is most likely to gain insight into Russia's military losses in more recent conflicts," Dandykin noted.

This development comes amid reports of the US planning to relocate military equipment from Germany to a firing range in Armenia, further fueling speculation about ongoing US efforts to monitor and assess Russian military activities.

By Vafa Guliyeva