Staunton, March 29 – The contemporary human rights movement emerged at a time when its possibilities for action were generally increasing. Now that those possibilities are continuously decreasing, it needs to reinvigorate itself by recalling the efforts of its predecessors, those who fought for the same rights as the Soviet system was institutionalizing itself. That […]
Staunton, March 27 — Some Russians explain the holding of a conference in St. Petersburg of fascists from around the world by suggesting that those are the only supporters Vladimir Putin can find in much the same way they excuse Stalin for becoming an ally with Hitler via the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. That is part of […]
Staunton, March 28 — Moscow got some bad news this week: it is losing out to other more technologically advanced countries in the arms sales sector, something that is costing Russia money but also highlighting the reality that many of its weapons systems are no longer world class as far as potential buyers are concerned. […]
Staunton, March 28 — In a democracy, it is sometimes said, anything that isn’t prohibited is permitted; in an authoritarian country, anything that isn’t permitted is prohibited; but in a totalitarian country, anything that is permitted is compulsory. By that standard, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is moving rapidly from the second to the third category. Fresh […]
Staunton, March 28 — Speaking in Kyiv March 27, Russian opposition leader Garri Kasparov said that the collapse of Vladimir Putin’s regime could spark the disintegration of the Russian Federation and that that in turn would likely be far more dangerous and explosive than was the end of the USSR. Kasparov said it is impossible […]
Many will regard Vladimir Putin’s latest story that he ordered the occupation of Crimea after an all-night meeting with his Security Council on February 22-23, 2014, as an admission of the truth. Unfortunately they would be wrong again. This “admission” represents just another of Putin’s never-ending lies intended to enhance his image and offer willing […]
Staunton, March 24 – Whenever people are confronted by changes that call into question existing paradigms, their first reaction typically is to deny that anything has happened or that it is significant, but their second is to seek analogies and parallels in the past as guides to understanding. In recent weeks, the murder of Boris […]
Staunton, March 24 – Even though the Russian government currently repairs less than one percent of its horrific roads in many regions, Moscow has announced plans to build a superhighway and rail line extending across the Russian north to the Bering Straits and a tunnel to Alaska, a project in which enormous sums will be […]
Staunton, March 25 – Positive developments with regard to radical extremist Russian nationalists during 2014 – including a falloff in the number of attacks on immigrants – were not the result of state policy but rather the refocusing of the attention of such people on events in Ukraine, according to SOVA’s annual report on such […]
Staunton, March 26 – In Vedomosti today, two scholars based in Paris and Los Angeles say that the new crop of dictators in the world today get by with a minimum use of force even at times of “moderate economic difficulties” and prefer to maintain their power by “an intensification of censorship and propaganda. Russia’s […]
