Staunton, November 18 – Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, says that Russian wants to receive “a 100 percent guarantee” that “no one will think about Ukraine entering NATO.” The only proper response to that outrageous example of imperial overreach is to offer NATO full membership in the alliance immediately. To do otherwise at this […]
Staunton, November 18 – A leader, someone has said, can tolerate almost any attack, but he needs to worry if people begin to laugh at him. Russians have a long history of telling anecdotes about their leaders – jokes allow for deniability – and this humor has not always cost those in charge their positions […]
Staunton, November 18 – Articles predicting in apocalyptic terms that Vladimir Putin’s deals with China will lead to Russia’s loss of Siberia and the Far East are now a regular feature on the Russian blogosphere. But more seriously and in any case more immediately, a Tajik analyst says, Moscow has already ceded its dominance in […]
Staunton, November 18 – Islam in Crimea traces its history back to the time of the Prophet and for most of that time, its followers have been moderate, even progressive in their views. That was the situation of the Crimean Tatars prior to the Anschluss, but the harsh treatment they have received since then threatens […]
Staunton, November 18 – Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine are not part of a broader imperial program but rather a tactical move on the part of the Kremlin leader to shore up his power in Moscow, something that makes any resolution of the conflict in Ukraine more rather than less difficult, according to Liliya Shevtsova. […]
Staunton, VA – November 17, 2014 – The G-20 meeting in Brisbane demonstrated that “the marginalization of Putin is a fait accompli,” that he has failed to split the West, and that its leaders have no intention of acting as Neville Chamberlain did in the late 1930s, according to Dmitry Oreshkin. The Moscow political scientist, […]
Staunton, VA – November 17, 2014 Some Moscow commentators say that sanctions and the worsening condition of the Russian economy is creating a Hobbesian world within the Russian elites around Putin, with some arguing the Kremlin leader must move toward an open dictatorship and others suggesting “a shadow government” is already taking shape. Obviously, such […]
Staunton, VA – November 17, 2014 – The treatment the leaders of the G-20 countries meted out to Vladimir Putin suggests that they have finally decided that they cannot and must not deal “with this president of Russia and with this regime,” something that recalls US President Ronald Reagan’s May 1983 words about “the evil […]
Staunton, VA – November 12, 2014 – Many have been troubled by policies of the Moscow Patriarchate that are inconsistent with the Christian tradition, but now Alfred Kokh, a former Russian vice prime minister, says that the Russian Church has moved so far away from Christianity that it has transformed itself into an independent religion. […]
Staunton, VA – November 12, 2014 Moscow no longer has the funds or access to foreign investment to promote either growth or equalization in Russia’s regions and instead has opted for a regional policy within the country based on geopolitical considerations and fears of Russia’s possible disintegration, according to a Moscow State University geographer. In […]
