Staunton, March 9 — Solvita Āboltiņa, chairman of the Latvian parliament’s security committee, says that the 100 NGOs in Latvia receiving money from Moscow are not “organizations concerned with the development of the culture and traditions of national minorities in Latvia.” Instead, the 100 Moscow-backed organizations the Security Police have identified are those which “are […]
Tag: Baltic States
Belarus, ‘Key to Baltics,’ Perhaps Even More Important for Moscow than Ukraine, Shevtsova Says
Staunton, February 25 – For Vladimir Putin, Belarus is “the key to the Baltic countries” as a military-strategic outpost and thus quite possibly Minsk will turn out to be “much more important for the Russian system than Ukraine is, according to Liliya Shevtsova, a Russian commentator now at the Brookings Institution. In an interview to […]
Moscow Laying Groundwork for Ukrainian Scenario in the Baltic States
Staunton, September 16 – The Russian government is laying the groundwork for a Ukrainian scenario in the Baltic countries, arguing that the three are mistreating ethnic Russians, that the West has failed to oppose such actions, and that Moscow is compelled under the circumstances to work to protect these members of “the Russian world.” Konstantin […]
Moscow Engaging in Ethnic Cleansing in Crimea, Latvian Foreign Minister Says
Staunton, September 8 – The Russian occupation authorities in Crimea are engaging in ethnic cleansing on the Ukrainian peninsula, something that the international community must not only take note of but do everything possible to stop, according to Edgar Rinkevics, Latvia’s foreign minister. And Mustafa Cemilev, the longtime leader of the Crimean Tatars who has […]
A Common Post-Soviet Space Doesn’t Exist Because a Common Soviet One Never Did, Moscow Sociologist Says
Staunton, September 4 – Many Soviet and Western analysts treated the Soviet space as something which was more unified than in fact was the case and thus failed to predict that it would disintegrate as it did. And even now, many of them assume that “a common post-Soviet space” exists, but that is not the […]
The US-Baltic Alliance at 75
Staunton, September 3 – US President Barack Obama’s visit to Tallinn today comes almost exactly 75 years after the United States and the three Baltic countries formed one of the most remarkable alliances of the 20th century. (An Estonian translation of this article appeared in Tallinn’s Eesti Paevaleht.) That alliance, which for nearly 50 years took […]
Putin’s Goals Make Diplomatic Solution in Ukraine Impossible, Illarionov Says
Staunton, June 23 – Vladimir Putin has no intention of ending his aggression in Ukraine, a series of actions intended to subordinate that country to the Kremlin or end its existence as an independent state, according to Andrey Illarionov. As a result, no diplomatic solution is possible, and other countries are likely to be drawn […]
Moscow Infecting Ukraine with ‘Russian Disease,’ Kyiv Commentator Says
Staunton, May 25 – Russia is dangerously ill, infected with Kremlin-promoted “intolerance, aggression, militarism and chauvinism,” a Kyiv commentator suggests, and there is a great danger because of Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine, that this “virus” will spread to that country and perhaps others as well. And if that infection sets in and Ukraine thus […]
Putin Much Less Dangerous Personally Than is His ‘Russian World’ Idea, Piontkovsky Says
Staunton, May 18 – Vladimir Putin’s conception of a “Russian world,” of “the idea of the uniqueness of the Russian man,” is “much more dangerous for the world than is Putin himself,” according to Andrey Piontkovsky. And the West must fight “this nightmare” by discrediting its author and showing that it “doesn’t work” Speaking to […]
Refusing to ‘Die for Narva’ Would Be End of NATO and the West, Piontkovsky Says
Staunton, April 29 – The Kremlin thought it had a winning propaganda theme offered up by some in the United States by “the sacramental question: ‘Do you want to die for Narva?’” Andrey Pionkovsky says, because in fact no one in the West “will ever go to war with Russia in the defense of Estonia” […]