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President Vladimir Putin is pursuing rearmament and confrontation with the West even during his current charm offensive.

Russian officials are dramatically underestimating the threat of Islamist groups now pose to the country, according to Galina Khizriyeva.

Over the last five years, Vladimir Putin has moved to rein in or even destroy a dozen of Russia’s formerly more independent media outlets, most recently RBC. And that prompts the question: whom will the Kremlin leader go after next?

Three developments over the last few days – a clash in Dagestan that ISIS has taken responsibility for, Russian interest in an alliance with the Afghan Taliban, and Patriarch Kirill’s statement that Orthodox Christians and Muslims must stand together against the Christian West — raise some disturbing questions

Staunton, VA, May 16, 2016 – For obvious reasons, polls of Russian attitudes are anything but a good indicator of where Russians are heading; but there is a more reliable bellwether: the way that the Kremlin uses its pocket opposition figures such as Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) as elections […]

Russian media have expressed unhappiness with the fact that Ukraine won the EuroVision song contest with Jamala, a Crimean Tatar singer who sang about her people’s deportation under Stalin in 1944.

Russian Strategy and Tactics Give Moscow ‘the Edge’ over NATO, Moscow Analyst Says 2016-05-15 23:56:48 Staunton, VA, May 13, 2016 –  The Russian way of war is very different from the American way, Yevgeny Krutikov says. In the past, the weaknesses of one side were balanced by those of the other. But now, as even some […]

Most commentators have dismissed as overblown suggestions that Moscow is preparing to occupy Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania because they are members of NATO and the EU and because such a Russian action would lead to a major military conflict between Moscow and the West.

Ten New Studies on Russian Realities Not to Be Missed 2016-05-13 01:51:10 Staunton, VA – May 12, 2016 –  Last month, at the 14th annual conference of Moscow Higher School of Economics, more than 900 scholarly papers were presented on various aspects of social, economic and political life. Journalist Boris Grozovsky selected and summarized 24 of […]

Russian attitudes about North Caucasians and the situation in the North Caucasus have stabilized or even improved over the last three year, even though there are potentially serious problems ahead; but their feelings toward Muslims in general have become increasingly negative, according to Yana Amelina.