Staunton, March 2 — The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, having offended many Russian liberals by its obscurantism and slavish subordination to the Kremlin and having angered many of Russia’s Muslims by its backing for missionary work among them, now appears set to offend a group it had hitherto largely ignored: Russia’s Buddhists. […]
Staunton, March 21 — Vladimir Putin and the world have crossed a dangerous threshold: The Kremlin leader no longer cares whether his lies about Ukraine or anything else are plausible because he sees that both his own subjects and many in the West are prepared to accept whatever he says as one version among many […]
Staunton, March 21 — The Kremlin and its supporters in Russia and abroad along with those frightened by the implications of holding Vladimir Putin responsible for the killing of Boris Nemtsov have spun out a variety of possible explanations involving the Chechens in order to muddy the waters and keep the blame from spreading upward. […]
Staunton, March 21 — Even as Moscow denounces anything it views as a manifestation of fascism abroad and prepares to mark the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, the Russian authorities are hosting tomorrow a meeting of Europe’s neo-Nazis, extreme nationalists, and anti-Semites who share one thing in common – their unqualified support for […]
Over the last year, since the Russian theft of Crimea, I’ve unambiguously warned that Vladimir Putin means what he says and he will not shy away from confrontation with the West, even at the risk of major war. Opportunities to deter this resurgent Russia, which I counseled many months ago, were punted on by the […]
A year ago on March 18, 2014, just two days after the annexation of Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a speech to his constituents and State Duma deputies regarding the referendum vote that made historical headlines. Despite reverberating criticism from the West and shock from Ukraine, Putin reiterated to his audience that the referendum […]
Staunton, March 18 — Kyiv analyst Taras Berezovets says that there is no threat that Vladimir Putin will be overthrown by a coup, however much his underlings may fight among themselves in ways that may even help him keep power, but there is a very real threat to Russia and its elites because of their […]
Last week Russia formally walked out of another arms control treaty, the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. This treaty was widely regarded as one of the building blocks of post-Cold War European security but it now appears to be formally dead and buried. Indeed, Moscow announced it would not renegotiate this treaty though it […]
Staunton, March 15 — If Vladimir Putin is ousted or when he dies, the Russian government likely to emerge at least in the near term would not be the liberal, democratic and peaceful one in which so many are placing their hopes. And in the short term, such a regime almost certainly would behave even […]
Staunton, March 14 — Rumors have always swirled around the Russian throne especially when anything happens or is thought to be happening or even is desired to happen. But the reach and intensity if not the accuracy and insight of such rumors has been vastly increased by the rise of social media and especially Twitter […]
