Staunton, October 20 – The meetings in Milan show that “Putin does not have a real alternative to the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis by the use of force, and that makes the Russian president really dangerous” in the coming days and weeks, according to Moscow commentator Boris Sokolov. Putin’s goal of securing a pro-Russian […]
Staunton, October 19 – Russia faces a new “time of troubles” if Vladimir Putin doesn’t escalate the conflict in Ukraine and establish control over all its territory, according to Igor Strelkov, the former defense minister of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk Peoples Republic. And he adds that Putin’s personal survival depends on such an escalation. In a […]
Staunton, October 19 – Russia’s 25-year-long era of freedom, which began in 1989 with the Congress of Peoples Deputies, has come to an end and the prospects for the future are extremely bleak, according to Academician Yury Pivovarov. If Russians do not transform themselves, their country risks becoming part of the third world. In an […]
Staunton, October 19 – Refugees from Ukraine apparently will not have to study non-Russian languages as required by the legislation of the non-Russian republics but instead will be exposed to more intensive Russian language instruction, yet another way in which Moscow is undermining the status of non-Russian tongues. Because of the sensitivity of language issues […]
Staunton, October 18 – Like many dictatorships, the Russian government of Vladimir Putin likes to use “legal” means to oppress its population, because that sleight of hand gives the patina of legality to what it is doing, thus confusing both its own people and even more those abroad who might otherwise condemn it. But three […]
Staunton, October 13 – Despite claims by Russian officials that all is well with the draft in Russia and that in fact fewer young men are seeking to avoid service than in the past, claims often accompanied by pointing to the problems Ukraine is having filling the ranks, the situation in the Russian Federation with […]
Staunton, October 13 – Most commentaries on Russian attitudes since the Crimean Anschluss have focused on the role of the Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus in creating a new sense of Russian national identity. But Yevgeny Ikhlov argues that what is going on has deeper roots than that. In a commentary October 13, the Moscow commentator says […]
Staunton, October 18 – At his press conference yesterday, Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka made so many remarkable statements that it is hard to know where to begin. But perhaps the most significant was that “Smolensk and Bryansk,” two oblasts now within the Russian Federation, are “ours, but Belarus doesn’t need them now.” While most people […]
Staunton, October 18 – Polls show that a higher percentage of Russians believe in Vladimir Putin than believe in God, but those figures are less about political support than the desire to find a savior – and, if the experience of other countries including the United States is any guide, almost certainly will dissipate quickly, […]
Staunton, October 17 – Given that Vladimir Putin can barely acknowledge Ukraine as a country and has twisted language about Russia’s role there beyond recognition, some Ukrainians think that it would be well for Ukrainians and others as well to use a different name for the Russian Federation than the one Putin does. That name, […]
