The fate of the anti-corruption and opposition leader Alexey Navalny over his most recent criminal charges has come to a rather abrupt and seemingly impromptu end. Sentenced to a suspended 3.5 years, he was spared the far harsher sentence the prosecution sought of ten years in prison. However the real victim was his brother Oleg, […]
Staunton, 1 June – Not one of the 2,000 Muslims currently living in Ukraine’s Luhansk Region favors secession or transferring their region to the Russian Federation, according to the leader of that community. Instead, even though many of them come as he does from parts of Russia, they are proud to be citizens of Ukraine. […]
Staunton, 1 June – Russia’s economic development ministry is preparing legislation that would allow Moscow to seize significant amounts of land in Crimea on an accelerated basis in the name of promoting economic development, a measure that is modelled on the one Vladimir Putin used in the run-up to the Sochi Olympics. According to a […]
Staunton, May 30 – Despite the rise of a Russian middle class and the rapid turnover in that country’s leaders and regimes, Vladimir Putin draws his support from the fact that Russian society remains tied to its peasant past, with most people not more than a generation or so removed from the culture of the […]
This is a dispatch from Kharkiv, written before the referendum vote this past weekend. – Ed. Kharkiv, Ukraine — Two of Ukraine’s eastern regions, Donetsk and Lugansk, are holding a referendum to establish an autonomous republic in their regions. In neighboring Kharkiv, pro-Russian separatists would like to see the same. Oleg — a young, well-educated, […]
Obviously, the world will never be the same after the events in the Crimea. By its unprecedented actions, in terms of international norms, Russia is forcing the West to make a decision – to accept it into the club of developed nations as an equal member, or push it away for once and for all, […]
Staunton, March 27 – Many commentators have pointed out that Moscow’s seizure of Crimea will give it much greater freedom of action at its Sevastopol naval base and allow the Russian government to project greater power southward against the littoral states, including Turkey, and into the Mediterranean. But two maps accompanying a blog post by […]
Staunton, March 18 – Despite the initial euphoria promoted by the Kremlin’s propaganda effort, ever more Russians appear to be concerned that what Vladimir Putin has done in Crimea, however good it made them feel in the short term, may have bad consequences for themselves, their country, and even for those who have backed this […]
Vladimir Pastukhov writes this saucy analogy for the liberal newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. In it he compares Russia’s reaction to Ukraine’s attempts to join the European Union to the actions of a scorned wife as her husband leaves her for a better offer. For more information, see our analysis of the Customs Union and our newest […]
Putin’s rule in Russia is based on his careful management of an institutionalized patronage system which has allowed him to navigate the “clan” factionalism of Russian business and political elites. Through unusually high commodity prices, and a 7 percent growth rate over the past decade, Putin was able to rely on large surpluses to placate […]
