Staunton, October 21 – Almost every news report provides lessons in geography and history as people focus on places they had not done so before and precedents they had not considered. The former may simply be a “collateral” result of where things are, but the latter often reflects efforts by those responsible for new developments […]
Staunton, October 14 – Ten years ago, a clash between radicals and the authorities in Nalchik claimed 141 lives, but massive repression has not solved the problems that gave rise to terrorism but rather led to “a significant outflow of potential and real militants to the Middle East” from which they may return, according to […]
Staunton, October 20 – Poshlost’ – a virtually untranslatable Russian word connoting self-satisfied vulgarity has become the defining characteristic of Russia under Vladimir Putin, according to commentator Aleksey Shiropayev, something that unites and infects all those living under his regime. Indeed, Putin’s country should now be called “Poshlandia.” Despite what some think, the Russian commentator […]
Staunton, October 17 – “To a great extent, no one is administering Russia” or interested in investigating what is actually going on, according to Simon Kordonsky, a professor at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. Instead, Russia “lives by inertia,” with the state being unaware of how uninformed it is and the population living according to […]
Staunton, October 19 – In an indication of Vladimir Putin’s isolation even in the former Soviet space and of the weakness of the CIS as an institution, not a single president of a member state publicly supported the Kremlin leader’s bombing campaign in Syria at the CIS summit in Kazakhstan, Arkady Dubnov notes. The Russian […]
Staunton, October 16 – Having already shown its contempt for the other Caspian littoral states by launching cruise missiles from its squadron on that sea, Moscow will be conducting joint naval exercises with Iran, again apparently without consulting Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan, according to Iran’s Fars news agency. Ahmad Reza Baqeri, an Iranian naval captain, […]
Staunton, October 16 – The flood of news stories from a country as large, diverse and often strange as the Russian Federation often appears to be is far too large for anyone to keep up with. But there needs to be a way to mark those which can’t be discussed in detail but which are […]
Staunton, October 15 – The Dutch report on the shooting down of the Malaysian jetliner last year released this week has attracted enormous attention but the report the International Investigative Group promises to release by early next year of the basis of the Dutch study may deserve even more. Together, they should give Vladimir Putin […]
Staunton, October 15 “It is not excluded,” Irek Murtazin writes in Novaya Gazeta, that the terrorist act blocked by the FSB on October 11 was nothing more than a training exercise organized to boost vigilance among a Russian population that “totally distrusts” the law enforcement agencies and thus can be mobilized only by something like […]
Staunton, October 15 – In an interview with Radio Poland’s Artem Filatov, Aleksandr Nevzorov, former host of the Russian TV program “600 Seconds,” argues that Russians are predisposed to want war, and indeed it would have been impossible to “zombify” 86 percent of Russians into supporting Vladimir Putin and his aggressive policies if Russians weren’t […]
