Staunton, May 28 – The share of Russians who are “skeptical” about the value of political parties for themselves and their country is opening the way for a return to a one-party system, in some ways resembling the one that existed in Soviet times, according to a Moscow commentator. In a Rosbalt.ru blog post yesterday, […]
Staunton, May 28 – Russians are now far more concerned about defending what they have than in getting something better, Lev Gudkov says. Consequently, if the Kremlin does try to take away something the majority thinks is rightfully theirs, such a step would almost certainly put the survival of the current regime at risk whatever […]
Staunton, May 27 – Thanks to the presidential elections, Ukraine has received “a breathing space,” but that space won’t last long, Yuri Felshtinsky says, because “Putin’s Ukrainian complex can be compared only with Stalin’s Polish complex and Hitler’s Jewish complex.” The last several months have demonstrated, the Russian historian says, that “one must not believe […]
Staunton, May 27 – In yet another example of Vladimir Putin’s restoration of some of the ugliest features of the Soviet past, his government has “politicized any public criticism and marginalized any who disagree,” thus ensuring that opponents of the Kremlin have no possibility of winning elections and transforming them into Soviet-era-style dissidents. That is […]
Staunton, May 27 – It would be “strange” if there weren’t any anti-Semites among groups fighting in Ukraine, Aleksandr Verkhovsky says, but he adds that “happily we have not observed any particular growth of anti-Semitism” there despite Moscow’s claims to the contrary. In the Russian Federation, on the other hand, the trend is different and […]
Staunton, May 27 – The Moscow and Western media have devoted enormous attention to the few dozen Russian officials who have been blocked from visiting a few countries in the West, but they have largely ignored the terrifying plans of the Putin regime to keep some five million Russian citizens from travelling outside the Russian […]
Staunton, May 26 – The “most significant result” of the Ukrainian presidential elections was not the selection of Petro Poroshenko, his victory in the first round, or the defeat of Yuliya Tymoshenko but rather “the formal-legal death of the Putin myth about the so-called ‘split’ of Ukraine into a West-Central and South-Eastern part,” Andrey Illarionov […]
Staunton, May 26 – Vladimir Putin “has lost the shortest cold war in history,” Yevgeny Ikhlov says. After having seized Crimea for Russia 12 weeks ago and effectively challenged the West to a contest, the Kremlin leader has backed away from his larger plan to counterpose a “Russian world” to everyone else. In a commentary […]
Staunton, May 26 – Russia faces a relatively limited choice about the direction it will follow, Vladimir Pastukhov argues. A liberal democratic scenario at this stage need not be considered. Instead, the country will choose among a national theocracy, a civil police state or “the imitation of statehood” altogether. In an essay on Polit.ru yesterday, […]
Staunton, May 26 – Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the special arrangements it has made for it mean underscores the fact that the federal subjects of the Russian Federation are far from equal, a reality that undercuts Vladimir Putin’s pledge to create a common legal space in his country and one sure to set off […]
