Staunton, December 24 – A proposal by Valentina Matviyenko, the Chairman of Russia’s Federation Council, to declare the Soviet government’s 1954 transfer of Crimea from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR “illegal” could “lead to war not only between Ukraine and Russia but practically along the entire perimeter of the present-day Russian Federation,” according to […]
Staunton, December 24 – Ethnic Russians living in Latvia and Lithuania “view themselves as a community and respect Russian culture but consider their native home to be the countries where they live rather than Russia,” and this is true even of those born in Russia or who are not citizens of their countries of residence, […]
Staunton, December 24 – Two reports this week, one suggesting that the events in Ukraine have distracted the attention of many Russians from ethnic conflicts at home and a second noting that the ruble’s collapse has in turn eclipsed Ukraine as an issue for many of them suggests an increasingly short-term approach by the population […]
Staunton, December 29 – Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics says that Riga is seeking EU funding in order to launch a Russian-language television network for Russian speakers in his country and the region so that they will not turn to Moscow channels that are full of misinformation and anti-Western propaganda. The new channel, he says, […]
Staunton, December 29 – A group of Duma deputies wants to restore the “Hero Mother” award with all its accompanying benefits in order to boost the birthrate in Russia and help solve that country’s demographic problems, but the Russian government is worried about the potential cost of doing so and, while not opposed, is seeking […]
Staunton, December 29 – Speaking to a meeting of 20,000 Chechen volunteers in Grozny yesterday, republic head Ramzan Kadyrov said that he and they are ready to perform tasks for Vladimir Putin “which can be solved only by volunteers” and not by “the regular army, air force, navy or nuclear forces.” “Putin has helped [the […]
Staunton, December 29 – Speaking to a meeting of 20,000 Chechen volunteers in Grozny yesterday, republic head Ramzan Kadyrov said that he and they are ready to perform tasks for Vladimir Putin “which can be solved only by volunteers” and not by “the regular army, air force, navy or nuclear forces.” “Putin has helped [the […]
Staunton, December 26 – Igor Trunov, the head of the Moscow city office of the Russian Red Cross, says that the Russian government used what it called “humanitarian convoys” to “most likely” ship arms to pro-Moscow fighters in Ukraine, in direct violation of international humanitarian law and practice. Trunov said December 25 that he doesn’t […]
Staunton, December 27 – In the new Russian military doctrine Vladimir Putin signed December 26, the fourth a Kremlin leader has issued since 1991, the Russian president speaks about an increasingly threatening foreign environment that can produce problems at home but provides few specifics about the threats, their source, or how Moscow will counter them. […]
Staunton, December 25 – Over the last year, Russia has experienced a coup “without a change of institutions, symbols or personnel,” being changed in even more significant ways than it was in the course of the “strong mutations of 2011-2013,” according to Aleksandr Rubtsov, the head of the Moscow Center for Research on Ideological Processes. […]
