Staunton, April 28 – Vladimir Putin’s moves against Ukraine are part of his larger plan not only to restore a country with the borders of the USSR but also to re-establish Moscow’s dominance in Eastern Europe and in Asia, according to Vitaly Portnikov in a comment to Gordunua.com. Putin clearly wants to occupy “all of […]
Staunton, April 27 – One of the darkest pages in Soviet and indeed Russian history was the anti-cosmopolitan campaign Stalin unleashed against everything Western in 1949, a campaign that ultimately focused on the Jews whom the Soviet dictator was planning to deport beyond the Urals at the time of his death. Even those who remain […]
Staunton, April 27 – One of the dangers that events like Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and continuing subversion of Ukraine poses is that these events inevitably mean that many observers and governments do not attend to other moves the Russian government is making, moves that one could almost describe as taking place under the cover […]
Staunton, April 27 – When an individual, a leader or a country takes something personally rather than viewing it as being in the way of business, that makes the situation far more dangerous because the usual options others have for countering actions taken on the basis of hard-headed calculation fall away. Still worse, such shifts […]
Staunton, April 26 – The worsening of relations between the US and the Russian Federation because of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine has led some in the Russian Federation to demonize Americans and all things American, including calls to boycott McDonald’s restaurants and to not drink Coca-Cola. There have been some exceptions to this trend but […]
Staunton, April 26 – Tatar organizations in the Middle Volga have nominated Mustafa Cemilev, the longtime leader of the Crimean Tatar national movement, for the Nobel Peace Prize, a step that calls attention to Cemilev’s efforts to defend his land against Russian aggression and growing ties between the Tatars of Crimea and the Tatars of […]
Staunton, April 26 – There is an old Soviet joke that the West sends diplomats to Moscow and Moscow treats them like spies while Moscow dispatches spies to Western capitals and Western governments treat them like diplomats, a joke that had more than a little basis in fact and that resonates now because of what […]
While the US President, Barack Obama, is due to announce a new range of sanctions against Russia later today, the situation in Ukraine is rapidly getting worse. Russian-backed fighters still hold seven OSCE monitors and three SBU officers hostage, in addition to others including the Ukrainian journalist Irma Krat. Furthermore, the violence has spread further […]
Russian-backed separatists “paraded” their prisoners through Slavyansk today, ultimately releasing one international observer on medical grounds. Three more Ukrainian servicemen, and the regional TV and radio headquarters in Donetsk, were captured by the gunmen. Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast. Please help […]
After OSCE Monitors were kidnapped by Russian-backed gunmen in Slavyansk, and after Russian aircraft have repeatedly violated Ukrainian airspace, both the G-7 and the EU say they have come up with plans for new sanctions against Russia. Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest […]
