Staunton, July 8 – The death of Eduard Shevardnadze yesterday has sparked an outpouring of memoirs and praise about his contributions to ending the cold war and to helping Georgia escape from the chaos of the 1990s. But in many ways, his most important contributions in the transition from the Soviet world to the post-Soviet […]
Tag: Georgia
Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova Now on ‘Baltic Path’ to the West, Russian Analyst Says
Staunton, June 29 – Like most Westerners, Russians have always made a distinction between the three Baltic countries and the former Soviet republics, but now a Russian analyst says that by turning to Europe, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are following the Baltic path, an indication of Moscow’s diminishing influence and thus of its likely policies […]
Ukraine Liveblog Day 130: Poroshenko Signs Association Agreement as Separatists Seize Donetsk Base
Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast. Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs. View Ukraine: April, 2014 in a larger map For links to individual updates click on the timestamps. Below […]
A Mini-Brezhnev Doctrine? — FSB Promises to Block Revolutions in CIS Countries
Staunton, June 7 – In yet another example of the Kremlin’s shamelessness about its plans to use its power across the former Soviet space in what constitutes an updated but geographically smaller Brezhnev doctrine, FSB head Aleksandr Bortnikov says his agency will react quickly and harshly to any attempt to overthrow existing regimes in the […]
Belarus or Northern Kazakhstan Could Be Next Eastern Ukraine, Tishkov Says
Staunton, 1 June – If the leaders of Kazakhstan or Belarus adopt policies like those Ukraine did, there is no guarantee that those two countries might suffer the fate that the eastern regions of Ukraine are now facing, according to Valery Tishkov, director of the Moscow Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology and a former Russian […]
‘Donetsk Disease’ Spreads to Abkhazia
Staunton, May 28 – In what the Kremlin is likely to see as the most disturbing blowback of its backing of the Donetsk separatists in Ukraine, a group of veterans of the Georgian-Abkhaz war have stormed a government building in Sukhumi and demanded the resignation of that breakaway republic’s president, an indication of how easily […]
Moscow Infecting Ukraine with ‘Russian Disease,’ Kyiv Commentator Says
Staunton, May 25 – Russia is dangerously ill, infected with Kremlin-promoted “intolerance, aggression, militarism and chauvinism,” a Kyiv commentator suggests, and there is a great danger because of Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine, that this “virus” will spread to that country and perhaps others as well. And if that infection sets in and Ukraine thus […]
Will Moscow Annex South Ossetia Soon or Not at All?
Staunton, April 29 – Despite Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comment four days ago that he “hadn’t heard” about any South Ossetian calls for that republic to follow the example of Crimea, a conference organized by the influential Russian Institute for Strategic Studies says that South Ossetia will be part of the Russian Federation by […]
Putin Reaches Out to Declining Demographic – Russian Speakers in Former Republics
Staunton, April 23 – Not only have the number of people in the former non-Russian republics identifying as ethnic Russians fallen dramatically since 1991, but the number who speak Russian or who study it in school has fallen precipitously as well, a trend that means Vladimir Putin is reaching out to an ever-smaller group and […]
Moscow has ‘No Alternative’ to Annexing South Ossetia, Russian Analyst Says
Staunton, March 30 – Ever since the Russian invasion of Georgia in August 2008, South Ossetian leaders have wanted their republic to be annexed by the Russian Federation and combined with the larger North Ossetian Republic. But Moscow had been reluctant to take that step. On the one hand, the Kremlin clearly believed that any […]