Window on Eurasia

‘What Can Ukraine Expect from the West Now?’ Former GULAG Inmate Asks Bitterly

February 15, 2015

Staunton, February 1 – Myroslav Marynovich, a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group who spend a decade in the Soviet GULAG and is currently vice rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, issued the statement below about how Ukrainians feel about what is happening to them now. It deserves to be read in full and is […]

Kremlin Think Tank Confirms Close Links with Kremlin and with New Greek Premier

Staunton, February 1 – There are denials, “non-denial denials,” and then denials that have the effect of confirming exactly what those doing the denying are seeking to disown and providing additional information as well. A classical example of the last is provided by the head of a Kremlin think tank who was trying to undercut […]

Fascism in Putin’s Russia Likely to Be Fascism of the Left, Oleynik Says

Staunton, February 14 – Most in Russia and many in the West are so used to thinking of fascism and especially Nazism as a phenomenon of the extreme right that they do not remember that Nazism was National Socialism and that until the Rohm Purge it was as much a movement of the left as […]

Germany and France ‘Sacrificed Ukraine’ for National Economic Interests, European Parliament Vice President Says

Staunton, February 13 – In what Vladimir Putin may see as an additional benefit and others as collateral damage, the Minsk accords have deepened splits within the European Union, with European Parliament Vice President Ryszard Czarnecki saying that the German and French leaders “sacrificed” Ukraine at Munich for the economic interests of their own countries. […]

Putin’s Incredibly Shrinking Russian World – Why He Insisted on Minsk for Talks

Staunton, February 14 – Despite his success in intimidating some European governments into inaction or even willingness to come to terms with the results of his aggression, Vladimir Putin in fact is having to cope with an ever-shrinking Russia world as his insistence on Minsk as a venue for talks about Ukraine shows. Indeed, had […]

Putin Moves to Take Full Control of Regional Television Channels

February 14, 2015

Staunton, February 14 — Concerned that regional TV channels in Russia might broadcast something at variance to Moscow ones, especially in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections, Vladimir Putin is moving quietly but quickly to take total control of those channels based outside of Moscow and in some cases still relatively independent of it. […]

Minsk ‘Worse than Munich,’ Landsbergis Says

February 13, 2015

Staunton, February 13 – Many including the author of these lines have compared what happened in Minsk this week with what happened in Munich in 1938, but Vytautas Landsbergis, the man who played the key role in recovering the independence of Lithuania, argues that the Minsk meeting was “much worse than Munich.” One reason for […]

From a Munich in Moscow to a Munich in Minsk — How Europe has Come to Putin’s Aid

Staunton, February 12 In the 1930s, Hitler pursued a simple policy: he simply said one thing and did another. Putin has innovated: he not only lies but uses forces to do his bidding for which no one holds him responsible and thus has the chance to be accepted by some in the West as a […]

Another Defeat For Putin’s ‘Russian World’ – Very Few Russians In Estonia Want To Leave

February 11, 2015

Staunton, February 6 — Over the last two year period for which statistics are available, only 37 ethnic Russians moved from Estonia to the Russian Federation despite Moscow’s program for resettling what it calls “compatriots” and the regular complaints of Russian officials that Estonia is oppressing its ethnic Russian minority. In February 6 issue of […]

Any Russian Region Could, With Outside Help, Become a Donbas

Staunton, February 6 – Like many countries, the Russian Federation suffers from many regional and ethnic tensions, any one of which could become a Donbas if an outside power provided it with assistance, a reality that both Moscow and many in the West appear to have forgotten, according to Ukrainian commentator Pavel Kazarin. In a […]