Staunton, February 7 – At a time when each day brings fresh evidence that Russia is headed in a very dangerous direction and many news items that leave one shaking one’s head or feeling the need to say “I’m not making this up,” there are nonetheless some “smaller” stories that must not be ignored because […]
Staunton, February 7 – The meeting of Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande with Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss Ukraine without the presence of Ukrainian leaders has led many commentators to draw parallels with the 1938 Munich Conference at which Britain and France sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler in the name of “peace in our […]
Staunton, February 9 – Aleksandr Sytin, a former researcher at the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies (RISI), a think-tank which was set up by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), advises the Kremlin and pushed for Moscow to seize Crimea and intervene in the Donbass, says that “a Ukrainian scenario” is “impossible” in the Baltic countries. […]
Staunton, February 7 – The so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR) has declared itself to be the successor to the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic which existed nominally within Soviet Russia in February-March 1918 between Ukraine’s signing a treaty with Germany and Soviet Russia’s signing the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The 1918 variant presented itself as a response […]
Staunton, February 5 — Moscow has changed the borders of its constituent regions, districts and republics many times over the last century, and Vladimir Putin for the last decade has pushed for the amalgamation of smaller non-Russian areas with larger and predominantly ethnic Russian regions. But there is one thing that Moscow does not want […]
Staunton, February 5 — Some in the West and even in Ukraine are urging Kyiv to accept Vladimir Putin’s Anschluss of Crimea and its formation of “peoples republics” in the Donbas in order to resolve the crisis, but such calls are dangerously wrong because if Kyiv agrees to Moscow’s demands, Moscow will only make more, […]
Staunton, February 4 – In any political system, there is always “an alternative” to the current leader, Georgy Satarov says, and consequently, when Vladimir Putin leaves his position, a new head of Russia will emerge — and it won’t necessarily be someone from the current Kremlin entourage or happen peacefully. But it is “another matter” […]
Staunton, February 5 – The Russian government has introduced draft legislation that would make it easier for Moscow to sign up professional soldiers and for commanders to force draftees to convert to that status and thus be available for dispatch to Ukraine, yet another indication Moscow is preparing for a massive invasion and facing difficulties […]
Staunton, February 4 – A proposal by Federation Council member Zhanna Ivanova to restore a nationality line in Russian passports has sparked concern among many who remember how such a line was used against Jews in Soviet times, worry that it may become a test of loyalty under Putin, and amusement about how Russians might […]
Staunton, February 4 — The exodus from Russia of Central Asian labor migrants and even the recent decline in the number of Ukrainians who fled to Russia last year after the start of the conflict there have attracted a great deal of attention, but outflow, this of people from Western countries, has attracted much less […]
