Window on Eurasia

Staunton, April 21 – Russian occupation officials are talking with the representatives of the Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Germans, four numerically-small nationalities in Crimea who were deported alongside the much larger population of Crimean Tatars in a transparent effort to pressure the Crimean Tatars to cooperate with the Russians. With only some exceptions, the Crimean […]

Staunton, April 21 – The West and Russia’s liberal intelligentsia equate civil society with the liberal opposition, but this is a serious error, two Russian analysts say. Instead, civil society need not be an opponent of the authorities but “yet another ‘branch of power’” that can take on itself things that “other branches for one […]

Staunton, April 21 – There is a hoary Soviet anecdote about a group of very old Russian women marching through Red Square just after World War II. They are carrying signs saying “Thank you Stalin for Our Happy Childhood!”  A secret policeman approaches and says “Grannies, you are so old that when you were children, […]

Staunton, April 21 — Since Vladimir Putin called for the creation of a new Agency for Nationalities Affairs, many have speculated that this decision will mark a turning point in Moscow’s approach to the increasingly numerous non-Russian portion of his country’s population. But a true measure of its meaning — which like so much Putin […]

Staunton, April 20 — Following the disintegration of the USSR, most of the successor states set up their own institutions to train diplomats, but even those who have such institutions, including some impressive ones, continue to send some of their people to be trained at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. […]

Staunton, April 20 — Ukrainians and Russians differ fundamentally in the source of sovereignty in their countries, with Ukrainians, like citizens of Western democracies, viewing the people as sovereign and with the Russians, like the subjects of autocracies of all kinds, assuming that their supreme leader is, according to a new poll. Irina Bekeshkin, director […]

Staunton, April 20 — Gas pipeline issues have attracted far more attention, but a plan for a unified energy network among European Union members appears likely to have serious consequences for Kaliningrad, the non-contiguous Russian exclave that is bordered by Poland and Lithuania, both of whom are EU members, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In a […]

Staunton, April 20 — In a statement that undermines Vladimir Putin’s notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people and that is hardly likely to lead more Ukrainians to view refuge in Russia as an attractive option, a Moscow official says that Ukrainian refugees are much worse off in the Russian capital than they were […]

Staunton, April 19 — On April 18, 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev imposed an economic blockade on Lithuania, an action that harmed the USSR as much as it hurt Lithuania but that did nothing to dissuade Lithuanians from seeking the recovery of their independence – a reminder of the limits of economic actions when a […]

Staunton, April 19 – Vladimir Putin’s statements about Ukraine in his “direct line” program yesterday look “moderate” but only in comparison with the militaristic declarations of the Russian defense minister and chief of the Russian general staff. But no one should be deceived into thinking he has changed his mind or assumptions, according to Vitaly […]