With fighting raging in Ukraine and any sign of a legitimate peace agreement gone over this latest round of fighting, both Kiev and the rebels are looking to beef up their numbers and prepare for what is sure to be another long stretch of fighting. Apparently the self-declared “Donetsk People’s Republic,” or DNR, has grand […]
Staunton, February 2 — The revival of Kremlinology, of relying on a variety of indirect indications of who is closer to the top leader and who may be opposed to him, is “a bad sign,” Ekaterina Schulmann says, not only because of what it says about the increasingly closed nature of Russian politics but also […]
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here. An archive of our liveblogs 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. For links to individual […]
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here, and see also our Russia This Week stories ‘Anti-Maidan’ Launched by Nationalists, Cossacks, Veterans, Bikers and The Guild War – How Should Journalists Treat Russian State […]
Staunton, February 2 – Russian embassies and other organizations Moscow has set up ostensibly to promote Russian ideas are actually working to transform Russian diasporas into obedient political weapons against the West and are treating them in ways that recall Soviet times, according to the head of the Russian compatriots organization in the Netherlands. Russian […]
Staunton, February 2 – Russians are ironically calling the Network, as the Kremlin’s new youth movement is officially known, “Putin’s Witnesses” because its members are so ideologically committed and go from house to house to spread their ideas about the need for complete loyalty to Vladimir Putin and his regime. The group in the process […]
Staunton, February 3 – Drawing on the findings of a Levada Center poll, the editors of Nezavisimaya Gazeta say that Russians are “dissatisfied with how they are treated medically and taught, they would like to live better and earn more, but these attitudes are not reflected in their voting in general elections.” Instead, the paper […]
Staunton, February 3 – For most people in the Russian Federation, the history of this or that region begins when it came under Russian control, but plans to gather DNA data from all the peoples of the Russian Federation will change that both for Russians and perhaps even more importantly for non-Russian nations within the […]
Staunton, February 2 – Why don’t Russia and the other former Soviet republics have an institute to produce specialists who know how to “enslave other countries,” having organized pro-Moscow revolutions in them, seized power via coups, and exported “pro-Russian ideology” to them? That outrageous question is posed today by Erlan Esenaliyev and Ermek Taichibekov, two […]
Staunton, February 2 – Russian revolutionary Lev Bronstein famously took his nom de guerre “Trotsky” from that of his first jailor because he observed in Russia there will always be jailors and bureaucrats. And indeed, Ivan Sukhov argues today, the Russian bureaucracy is still capturing those who try to lead it and overwhelming those who […]
