Staunton, September 16 – The US campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria gives Russia new opportunities to advance its interests in the Middle East, according to Roman Silantyev, an influential Russian specialist on Islam who has gained notoriety but also much support for his criticism of Muslims both inside the Russian Federation […]
Staunton, September 16 – The Russian government is laying the groundwork for a Ukrainian scenario in the Baltic countries, arguing that the three are mistreating ethnic Russians, that the West has failed to oppose such actions, and that Moscow is compelled under the circumstances to work to protect these members of “the Russian world.” Konstantin […]
Staunton, September 15 – In a change of tactics reflecting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement on Saturday that Russia wants to have a “neutral” Ukraine rather than to create another Transdniestria lest that further alienate the rest of Ukraine, Moscow will back the participation of the Donbas in the October 26 Ukrainian elections. Under […]
Staunton, September 15 – Many in the West view what Vladimir Putin has done in Ukraine as some kind of “anomaly” that he can correct and then cooperation between Moscow and the West can be restored to what it was, but Putin’s actions are making that position ever harder to sustain, according to Marcin Zaborowski. […]
Staunton, September 15 – Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of a horrific tragedy in which the Soviet government tested a nuclear weapon on its own people at a military base in Orenburg Oblast, a tragedy which continues because the Russian government has not been willing to face up to what happen or provide effective help […]
Staunton, September 15 – The FSB has brought charges against four Russians in Krasnodar Krai for promoting separatism there, the first such application in the country of the law adopted in May of this year imposing criminal penalties for calling into question the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation. But a survey of specialists on […]
Staunton, September 15 – More than 3,500 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine in the course of Vladimir Putin’s war against the Ukrainian people, according to Elena Vasilyeva of Murmansk. That figure is roughly one quarter of the number Moscow claimed it lost in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. But Russian media have ignored or […]
Staunton, September 14 – Central Asians never have been happy that many in the outside world lump them altogether as “the stans” or under an even more disparaging rubric. Earlier this year, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev talked about renaming his country “Kazakh Eli,” and now some politicians in Kyrgyzstan are doing the same. (For a […]
Staunton, September 14 – Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has “no influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin or on Kremlin policy,” according to Patriarch Filaret, head of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. Instead, Filaret said in Lviv on September 13, influence runs in the other direction […]
Staunton, September 14 – The Russian occupation of Crimea has brought with it a return to “Soviet times in their most cynical manifestations,” one without freedom but with denunciations, according to Refat Chubarov, head of the Crimean Tatar Milli Mejis. Tragically, he says, the situation after today’s elections “will become still worse.” That is why, […]
