Updated Daily. The tragic deaths of 46 people in clashes in Odessa and the fire at the Trade Unions Building have received wide coverage in the Russian media and blogosphere, but from diametrically opposed perspectives, depending on the degree of independence from the state and degree of sympathy with the EuroMaidan movement versus the Kremlin-backed […]
Staunton, April 30 – Vladimir Putin will seek to expand Russia’s influence and control right up to the borders of NATO because the West has shown that it is not ready to interfere in any serious way to defend countries that have not been able to get into the Western alliance up to now, according […]
Staunton, April 29 – Despite Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comment four days ago that he “hadn’t heard” about any South Ossetian calls for that republic to follow the example of Crimea, a conference organized by the influential Russian Institute for Strategic Studies says that South Ossetia will be part of the Russian Federation by […]
Staunton, April 29 – Mustafa Cemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatar national movement whom Russian authorities have banned from entering his homeland until 2019, says that the Russian security service has told him and by extension his nation that its members must submit to Russian rule, face prison, or, even more ominously, “disappearance.” Despite […]
Staunton, April 28 – Vladimir Putin’s moves against Ukraine are part of his larger plan not only to restore a country with the borders of the USSR but also to re-establish Moscow’s dominance in Eastern Europe and in Asia, according to Vitaly Portnikov in a comment to Gordunua.com. Putin clearly wants to occupy “all of […]
Staunton, April 26 – Tatar organizations in the Middle Volga have nominated Mustafa Cemilev, the longtime leader of the Crimean Tatar national movement, for the Nobel Peace Prize, a step that calls attention to Cemilev’s efforts to defend his land against Russian aggression and growing ties between the Tatars of Crimea and the Tatars of […]
Staunton, April 24 – It is notoriously easier to spark a protest movement than to control its direction thereafter or to ensure that it does not become a model for others one does not want to be involved in. That risk is now on display in eastern Ukraine where pro-Moscow activists are not only seeking […]
Staunton, April 22 – Vladimir Pastukhov suggests that Ukraine now faces the choice of concluding a humiliating “Brest peace” with Moscow, in which it would yield an enormous portion of its territory and population to preserve itself in the hopes of recovering its losses in the future, or risk the possibility that it disappears altogether. […]
Staunton, April 20 – The US Department of State has declared that Washington will never recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, but such declarations, important as they are, need to be given real content to ensure that no part of the government, intentionally or otherwise, takes steps that undermine that policy. In short, what is needed […]
Staunton, April 17 – If current trends continue, half of the population of the Russian Federation in its current borders will consist of immigrants, according to a new Moscow study, a conclusion clearly intended to feed anti-immigrant feelings and, more speculatively, designed to promote a discussion of what can and should be done, including the […]
