Window on Eurasia

Without Real Federalism, Some Russian Regions Will Pursue Secession, Moscow Analyst Says

June 3, 2014

Staunton, 3 June – The Ukrainian crisis and Moscow’s insistence on the federalization of that country have “awakened the interest of Russian society in federalism,” with some predominantly ethnic Russian regions and territories now as committed to achieving real federalism in Russia as any of the non-Russian republics. And if Moscow does not agree to […]

Scholars Demand Moscow be Held Accountable for Occupation of Crimea and Violation of Crimean Tatar Rights

Staunton, 3 June – A group of scholars from around the world who study nationality issues in Eurasia are circulating an online petition calling on “all states, agencies, organizations and individuals” to speak out in defense of the rights of the Crimean Tatars and hold “the Russian authorities in illegal occupation of Crimea accountable for […]

How Eurasianism Became the Neo-Eurasianism of Today

Staunton, 2 June – Two new studies, one a biography of the late ethnic theorist Lev Gumilyev and another an investigation of the Eurasianists of the 1920s, throw new light on how classical Eurasianism was transmitted to its recent advocates and how they transformed it into something quite different than the original. The first of […]

Sochi Officials Resumed Killing Homeless Animals After Olympic Journalists Left, Activist Says

June 2, 2014

Staunton, 2 June – In a classic example of how international attention can restrain Russian officials and how the end of such attention frees them to resume what they were doing, an animal rights activist reports that Sochi officials have restarted their campaign to kill homeless animals since Western journalists left following the Olympiad. Tatyana […]

Belarus or Northern Kazakhstan Could Be Next Eastern Ukraine, Tishkov Says

Staunton, 1 June – If the leaders of Kazakhstan or Belarus adopt policies like those Ukraine did, there is no guarantee that those two countries might suffer the fate that the eastern regions of Ukraine are now facing, according to Valery Tishkov, director of the Moscow Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology and a former Russian […]

Moscow Patriarchate Not Marching in Lockstep with Kremlin on Ukraine, Lunkin Says

Staunton, 1 June – The Moscow Patriarchate is no longer in lockstep with the Kremlin on Ukraine, the result of the reactions of other Christian groups in Ukraine, its own corporate interests, and pressure from its own congregations who have a different view of the future than do many in the hierarchy, according to Roman […]

Not One of 2,000 Muslims in Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast Favors Secession, Leader Say

Staunton, 1 June – Not one of the 2,000 Muslims currently living in Ukraine’s Luhansk Region favors secession or transferring their region to the Russian Federation, according to the leader of that community. Instead, even though many of them come as he does from parts of Russia, they are proud to be citizens of Ukraine. […]

Moscow Preparing to Seize Land in Crimea for ‘State Needs’ as It Did in Sochi

Staunton, 1 June – Russia’s economic development ministry is preparing legislation that would allow Moscow to seize significant amounts of land in Crimea on an accelerated basis in the name of promoting economic development, a measure that is modelled on the one Vladimir Putin used in the run-up to the Sochi Olympics. According to a […]

Five Arguments Russians Make for Decentralization of Ukraine Even More Compelling for Russian Federation

Staunton, 1 June – One of the problems that Moscow propagandists face is that many of the arguments they put out for political change in Ukraine apply with equal or even greater force to the Russian Federation and thus have the potential to spark demands inside the latter country that the Kremlin is very much […]

A Challenge for Russian Parents – Raising Free Children in a Totalitarian State

May 31, 2014

Staunton, May 31 – In a new book, educational theorist Anatoly Yermolin suggests that there are ways for Russian parents to raise “independent, self-sufficient and harmoniously developed children” who could become the basis for “the flourishing of the state” despite the authoritarianism and even totalitarianism round them. Yermolin, who heads the Internet lycee “Podmoskovny” founded […]