Staunton, February 4 – Many in the West fear that providing military assistance to Ukraine would open the way for disasters ranging from the potential loss of an American helicopter as happened in Somalia to a possible nuclear exchange between Russia and the West as Vladimir Putin has threatened. But such arguments, as emotionally compelling […]
Staunton, February 4 – Even though many of those around Vladimir Putin fear that his ouster would lead to a new time of troubles, some of them have become convinced that the situation now is already so dire that he must be replaced and are “quietly searching” for a possible successor, according to Moscow analyst […]
Staunton, February 3 – Calls by Russian politicians to rename Crimea “Tavrida” or “Tavriya” are part of an effort by Moscow to “de-Turkify” the peninsula and thereby separate the Crimean Tatars from the land “on which they arose and evolved,” according to Bekir Mamutov, editor in chief of “Kyyrym.” Mamutov, who is also a member […]
Staunton, February 3 — The arrest and charging of Svetlana Davydova, the Vyzama homemaker, with treason for calling the Ukrainian embassy “has become a concentrated expression not only of the cruelty but of the stupidity of the current regime” in Moscow, according to Kseniya Kirillova. That is because it displays the propensity of the Kremlin […]
Staunton, February 2 — The Kremlin’s calls for a ceasefire and calls by the pro-Russian militants in the Donbass for a mass mobilization are all designed to distract attention from Moscow’s preparations for a massive invasion of Ukraine sometime in the coming days, according to Russian military analyst Aleksandr Golts. And that conclusion is strengthened, […]
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 […]
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 […]
