Staunton, November 22 – When the Ukrainian crisis began, some commentators in the West suggested that NATO would not in the end fight to defend the Baltic countries even though the latter are full members of NATO by asking “who is prepared to die for Narva?” But now a senior US State Department has given […]
Staunton, November 14 – The fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago did not end the division between East and West as some imagine. Instead, that division, although it now runs along a line several hundred kilometers further east, has turned out to be far more significant and longer-lasting than many want to believe, […]
Staunton, November 21 – Sergey Aksyonov, head of the Russian occupation administration in Crimea, says that the international community will recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation after US President Barack Obama leaves office, a statement that underscores the need for a formal non-recognition policy on the part of Western governments. An important step […]
Staunton, November 21 – On the first anniversary of the beginning of the Maidan demonstrations, Vitaly Portnikov says, it is important to understand that “Putin lost Ukraine even before the Maidan, before the dispersal of the students, before the bloodshed, before the occupation or Crimea and before the war in the Donbass.” He lost it, […]
Staunton, November 21 – Vladimir Putin rarely has been willing to retreat from any of his decisions even when they have clearly been shown to be wrong, but he has done so in the case of the office of the presidency in Tatarstan, an indication of just how important the Volga Tatars have become for […]
Staunton, November 21 – During a BBC interview in which he said Moscow wants “a 100 percent guarantee” that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary also said that if radical nationalists came to power in Riga and if Brussels recognized that as it did in Ukraine, then “Latvian citizens […]
Staunton, November 15 – Russian drinkers looking for a second or a third to share a bottle of vodka have long been a feature of public life in their country. Now, the Internet is helping them to find one another more quickly: on the web, what Russians are calling a “Facebook for alcoholics” helps them […]
Staunton, November 15 – Some 250 Russian draftees at a military base in Rostov oblast have rejected the appeals of their commanders to sign up as contract soldiers, a step that would allow Moscow to send them to fight in southeastern Ukraine, according to Valentina Melnikova of the Union of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia. Melnikova […]
Staunton, November 20 – “September 3, 1939 – British and French commentators and officials said today that it could no longer be denied that Hitler was invading Poland and that the Nazi forces represented the most serious threat to the existence of that country, but they said that Warsaw could not reasonably expect allied assistance […]
Staunton, November 20 – Human Rights Watch has released an eight-page report on “Rights in Retreat” in Crimea since the Anschluss, and the occupation authorities have gone into full-denial mode in response, dismissing the report as lacking “objective confirmation” and containing only “empty talk.” In an interview with Moscow’s Gazeta yesterday, Sergey Aksyonov, prime minister […]
