Staunton, July 1 The passing of Yevgeny Primakov “unexpectedly unified Russian society no less” and quite possibly more than the Crimean Anschluss, and the basis of this – an “indisputable faith in the greatness of the old Soviet nomenklatura” represents “a real diagnosis of the illness of Russian or more precisely post-Soviet society,” Vitaly Portnikov […]
Staunton, June 29 – Andranik Migranyan, who became infamous for his suggestion that Hitler would have been a second Bismarck if the Nazi leader had stopped before invading Poland, is going back to Moscow because his Institute for Democracy and Cooperation in New York, which Vladimir Putin created in 2007, is closing down. According to […]
Staunton, June 28 – Many of the hopes that some Russians in Crimea had for their homeland after the Russian Anschluss have not been realized, and as a result, polls show, and occupation officials concede, that “the majority of young Crimeans” regardless of nationality “do not consider themselves to be patriots of Russia.” In Novyye […]
Staunton, June 28 – Many Russian analysts have suggested that the Kremlin views what is going on in Armenia as a color revolution because it is incapable of thinking about any protests in the former Soviet republics as anything but the actions of foreign governments in general and the United States in particular. But Yuliya […]
Staunton, June 26 – In the age of the Internet, it isn’t enough for an authoritarian ruler to control what appears in newspapers and on television. If he really wants to isolate his opponents, he must try to intimidate journalists into not covering those the leader doesn’t like lest they post their reports online and […]
Staunton, June 26 – Vladimir Putin has made the Russian language a key element in his definition of “the Russian world” he wants to create, but his actions in pursuit of that goal are destroying any possibility that Russian speakers will be united, according to Olga Irisova, a Russian associate of Warsaw’s Center for Polish-Russian […]
Staunton, June 26 – Many “natural” disasters are in fact man-made, the direct result of thoughtless, irresponsible or even criminal actions by specific individuals and organizations. The disastrous flooding of Sochi this week is one of those: it is the result of the actions Vladimir Putin took in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in […]
Staunton, June 26 – Vladimir Putin has repeatedly declared that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, but over the last year, the share of Russians who agree with him on that point has continued to fall — and the percentage of those who accept that they are two different nations has risen, according to Levada […]
Staunton, June 25 – Vladimir Putin and his fellow siloviki [power ministers] are again showing in the case of Armenia as they have in Ukraine the limitations of their worldview, according to Igor Eidman. They simply cannot imagine that people can and do protest on their own, and consequently, he and they are always seeking […]
Staunton, June 24 – Many Russian analysts (e.g. SVPressa.ru ) are hurrying to suggest that this week’s protests in Yerevan and their suppression by the Armenian government are the opening round of a new Maidan, an anti-Moscow action that is being promoted and exploited by the West as part of a broader geopolitical struggle. But […]
