Staunton, July 31 – The census in Crimea that the Russian occupation authorities plan to conduct in October will be extremely detailed but may not be accurate because Moscow experts have already indicated that they believe that there are far more Russians in Crimea and far fewer Crimean Tatars than have been counted hitherto. Such […]
Staunton, July 19 – The two countries Moscow views as its closest partners, Belarus and Kazakhstan, have refused to join its sanctions campaign against Moldova, another indication, the editors of Nezavisimaya gazeta say today, that as a result of its recent actions, “Moscow is losing its allies.” That, in turn, suggests two things, the editors […]
Staunton, July 30 – Vladimir Putin has eliminated elections at the regional levels at least in part to ensure that nationalist parties do not have the opportunity to challenge his hand-picked party of power officials. But some nationalist groups are using elections at the city level to advance their cause. In Karelia, Yekaterina Yemelyanova and […]
Staunton, July 30 – This year, the Russian Orthodox ‘Day of the Baptism of Rus’ coincided with the Muslim holiday of Uraza Bayram [The Sugar Feast, when Muslims traditionally break the fast – The Interpreter]. On Monday, in what many will see as symbolic, Moscow’s churches, with the exception of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, […]
Staunton, July 30 – Commentators in both Moscow and the West typically view the ideological competition in the post-Soviet countries as a simple one between pro-Russian and pro-Western groups, but in the Muslim-majority states, there is a third trend, the pro-Islamic one, and that is becoming stronger as the others and especially the Western one […]
Staunton, July 30 – Commentators in Moscow and the West ever more frequently draw parallels between Vladimir Putin’s ideas and actions and those of fascist regimes in the first part of the 20th century, but few have focused on the fact that one of the Kremlin leader’s most-cherished ideas, that of the ‘Russian Spring,’ was […]
Staunton, July 30 –Some Russian nationalists are already looking beyond the defeat of the militants in eastern Ukraine by the Ukrainian military and arguing that “even if the revolt in Novorossiya is suppressed, Ukraine will no longer exist,” an assessment now less about pushing Moscow to intervene than about trying to put the best face […]
Staunton, July 29 – Russia’s Regnum news agency is reporting something that Moscow’s policies in Ukraine have helped promote: a Hungarian leader in Transylvania is now demanding “total national independence” from Romania, a move that could thoroughly destabilize not only Romania and Hungary but much of Eastern Europe. Lazlo Tokes, whom Regnum describes as “one […]
Staunton, July 26 – Individual Russians can “struggle against the US” by boycotting American products, a Russian site says: this appeal highlights not only the high level of penetration of US firms in the Russian market but also the apparent reluctance of many Russians to take part in any formal action of this kind. In […]
Staunton, July 28 – More than 19,000 residents of Tajikistan have de-Russianized their names so far this year, dropping the “–ov” or “–ev” endings that had been de rigueur in Soviet times, according to Rustom Shohmurod, the Central Asian country’s minister of justice. The current effort to restore Tajik spellings began following the publication of […]
