Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here. President Vladimir Putin arrived in Astana, Kazakhstan for a trilateral summit with Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka. UPDATES BELOW Special features: – […]
Staunton, March 9 – It is a measure of just what a threat Vladimir Putin represents to neighboring countries that Aleksey Yanukevich, the leader of the Belarusian Popular Front Party, says that Alyaksandr Lukashenka, usually described as “the last dictator in Europe,” is now “a lesser evil” than the Kremlin imperialism the Kremlin leader is […]
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here, and see also our Russia This Week stories ‘Anti-Maidan’ Launched by Nationalists, Cossacks, Veterans, Bikers and The Guild War – How Should Journalists Treat Russian State […]
Staunton, January 26 – Because both Vladimir Putin and the West have tried, albeit for radically different reasons, to avoid saying that Russia has invaded Ukraine and that the two countries are thus at war, many of the terms analysts and political leaders have used in earlier conflicts need to be updated to take the […]
Staunton, January 21 – After declaring in December that they felt diminished by the fact that Belarusian believers felt insulted by the fact that the Orthodox Church in their country did not have self-administering status, the leadership of the Belarusian exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church has shelved the issue for the next 25 to […]
Staunton, December 22 — Belarusian nationalists over the last year “not only have come out of ‘the political ghetto’ into which they have been since the end of the 1990s but also have become an influential political force” in Minsk, indeed a force that even Alyaksandr Lukashenka has had to take into consideration and play […]
Staunton, October 21 – As a result of events in Ukraine, a Kyiv commentator says, “a large number” of Belarusians has “suddenly come to understand that to be a Russian speaker living outside of Russia is becoming dangerous,” given that Moscow will send “little green men” to “defend” them even without their asking. On an […]
Staunton, September 25 – Western leaders may still refer to Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka as “the last dictator in Europe,” but in the wake of the events in Ukraine, they will not do anything to challenge him that might lead to instability in Belarus, according to a Mensk analyst just back from a visit to […]
Staunton, June 12 – Many commentators have pointed out that Russia’s strategy and tactics in Ukraine are a more or less complete copy of the ones Hitler used against Poland and Stalin used in the Baltic countries. But if one looks beyond Ukraine, it is entirely possible that Vladimir Putin will copy another Nazi operation. […]
