Staunton, November 6 – The Kremlin has taken control not only of public discussions about memory of the repressed and not only about any criticism of Stalin but also “criticism of the contemporary exaltation of Stalin,” lest that lead Russians to draw the obvious parallels between the late dictator and Vladimir Putin, according to Irina […]
Staunton, November 9 – Most people who predict the disintegration of the Russian Federation focus on ethnicity, but in fact, as the situation in Karelia shows, ethnicity plays a much smaller role in mobilizing the population to defend itself against Moscow than do competitive elections, Vadim Shtepa says. “Real regionalism,” the Karelian activist and commentator […]
Staunton, November 9 – Most observers focus on ethnic and religious issues as the drivers of protest in the North Caucasus, but in fact, North Caucasians have in addition to these concerns many other reasons to protest, some of which are typical of Russia as a whole and others regionally specific, according to Anton Chablin. […]
Staunton, November 9 – For Vladimir Putin, Viktor Kaspruk argues, “Ukraine is the key to a future Russia or more precisely a future Russian Empire,” and consequently, even if he has lowered the temperature in the Donbass in recent weeks, the Kremlin leader is likely to renew his attacks on Ukraine next year having first […]
Staunton, November 6 – Many Russians are upset that their country lost 4.7 square kilometers last week as a result of Moscow’s handing over of a border parcel to China, but so far at least, they have expressed less anger that their country is losing 100 times as much territory every year to global warming […]
Staunton, November 6 – Given the bloody history of the USSR, few in either Russia or the West are surprised by the discovery of mass graves from the Soviet period. But the appearance of new mass graves in a Russian region, in this case of infants who were stillborn or died shortly after birth, is […]
Staunton, November 8 In his recent speeches, Moscow Patriarch Kirill has articulated a kind of Orthodox Fundamentalism that not only resembles the more familiar Islamist variant but like it will encourage those who want to attack modernity in the name of traditional rural values to engage in violence, Yevgeny Ikhlov argues. “If in Kirill’s speeches, […]
Staunton, November 8 Now that most experts have concluded that Flight A321 was brought down as the result of a bomb explosion, Andrey Illarionov says, it is time to ask two more difficult questions: who destroyed the plane? And what did those who did so hope to achieve? There are essentially two answers that have […]
Staunton, November 8 – To the extent that falling prices for natural resources will force Moscow to rely on the development of other sectors, the Russian economy faces another and perhaps even more serious hit in the near term – a dramatically smaller workforce, each of whose members will have to support significantly larger pensioner […]
Staunton, November 6 On November 7, some will celebrate the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, and on November 9, a much smaller number will mark the anniversary of the Third Reich, a conjunction of dates that again prompts many to compare these two systems and their evils. In a Rufabula commentary November 6, Russian regionalist […]
