Staunton, April 20 — Following the disintegration of the USSR, most of the successor states set up their own institutions to train diplomats, but even those who have such institutions, including some impressive ones, continue to send some of their people to be trained at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. […]
Staunton, April 20 — Ukrainians and Russians differ fundamentally in the source of sovereignty in their countries, with Ukrainians, like citizens of Western democracies, viewing the people as sovereign and with the Russians, like the subjects of autocracies of all kinds, assuming that their supreme leader is, according to a new poll. Irina Bekeshkin, director […]
Staunton, April 20 — Gas pipeline issues have attracted far more attention, but a plan for a unified energy network among European Union members appears likely to have serious consequences for Kaliningrad, the non-contiguous Russian exclave that is bordered by Poland and Lithuania, both of whom are EU members, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In a […]
Staunton, April 20 — In a statement that undermines Vladimir Putin’s notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people and that is hardly likely to lead more Ukrainians to view refuge in Russia as an attractive option, a Moscow official says that Ukrainian refugees are much worse off in the Russian capital than they were […]
Staunton, April 19 — On April 18, 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev imposed an economic blockade on Lithuania, an action that harmed the USSR as much as it hurt Lithuania but that did nothing to dissuade Lithuanians from seeking the recovery of their independence – a reminder of the limits of economic actions when a […]
Staunton, April 19 – Vladimir Putin’s statements about Ukraine in his “direct line” program yesterday look “moderate” but only in comparison with the militaristic declarations of the Russian defense minister and chief of the Russian general staff. But no one should be deceived into thinking he has changed his mind or assumptions, according to Vitaly […]
Staunton, April 19 – Vladimir Putin’s efforts to exclude the people of the Russian Federation from voting on the heads of federal subjects may be backfiring because it is leading some citizens there to take to the streets to demand that their current regional rulers be ousted and gaining confidence in their power, a development […]
Staunton, April 19 – Yury Dolinsky, a Russian analyst who specializes on the Baltic countries, says that most residents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, however much they say they are worried about the Russian threat, believe that their membership in NATO will keep Moscow from invading or force Moscow to withdraw if it does invade […]
Staunton, April 19 – – Bondo Dorovskikh, a Russian businessman, volunteered to go to Ukraine to “fight fascism” and defend “the Russian idea;” but he says he rapidly discovered the situation in the Donbass was not as he had been led to expect and that he had been enrolled “not in an army but in […]
Staunton, April 19 – – As it has taken to doing, Kyiv’s Delovaya Stolitsa newspaper publishes today a list of “the top five propagandistic myths, fakes and stupidities of the Kremlin” for the past week. Obviously, given the barrage of Moscow’s lies about Ukraine, these lists are highly selective, but they are also extremely instructive. […]
