Staunton, January 14 – A return to “traditional values” is being promoted by the Russian leadership to reinforce public support, and demanded by some Russians for a variety of reasons; but in fact, such values “tested by time over many centuries which are now being propagandized in Russia simply don’t exist, according to Tatyana Shcherbina, […]
Staunton, January 14 – Practically all efforts to promote development while maintaining a power vertical based on the existing arrangements of regions, republics and municipalities have failed because development requires a different set of incentives than does the vertical which is interested above all in maintaining itself, according to Rasul Kadiyev. Nowhere is that more […]
Staunton, January 14 – Moscow has unleashed a powerful wave of “black propaganda” against Belarus, often using Belarusians who now live in the Russian Federation to do it. But that effort, ostensibly designed to counter Western and Ukrainian propaganda, is alienating Belarusians and making cooperation between the two countries in the union state more difficult. […]
Staunton, January 14 – Ukraine’s drive to become a European country is forcing Russians to recognize that their country isn’t one, a reflection that helps to explain why many Russians are so angry at Ukraine and so willing to accept the Kremlin’s version of events there, according to Artemy Troitsky. In a commentary in Novaya […]
Staunton, January 12 – Both the tsarist and Soviet armies had at various points units consisting of Muslim soldiers, and these units fought well. But if Moscow allows Central Asians to serve in the Russian army and even forms “Muslim battalions,” it is far from clear whether these units would be willing to fight for […]
Staunton, January 14 – Russians face so many problems and have so many fears that it is often a daunting task to ensure that one is keeping track of all of them. As a guide for the perplexed, Kseniya Veretennikova provides a checklist of the “top 15 fears” Russians have about the year ahead. Some […]
Staunton, January 12 – Vladimir Putin does not have a well-developed ideology, however much people want to find one. Rather, his eclectic cynicism provides him with the flexibility to keep himself in power, is congruent with a consumerist Russian society skeptical of any broader systems, but points to a horrific totalitarian future for Russia and […]
Staunton, January 12 – The Soviet Union’s role in defeating Hitler in what Russians refer to as the Great Patriotic War has always been a central element of Russian national pride, but under Vladimir Putin, it has taken on the form of a religious cult, one that is helping to push the country from authoritarianism […]
Staunton, January 11 – Mikhail Gorbachev’s current call for the “perestroika” of the international system is just as much a “cynical political scam” as was his original one, something that led many to conclude he wanted something more than just a more effective form of “authoritarian modernization,” according to Yevgeny Ikhlov. With the passage of […]
Staunton, January 11 – Ten months after the Anschluss of Crimea, the Russian occupation authorities have succeeded in changing that Ukrainian peninsula to such an extent that Crimea now resembles Belarus, a place where one can live “in sufficient comfort” as long as one doesn’t have “any need to have any contact with the state,” […]
