Staunton, August 29 – The Russian military has the ability to seize Donetsk and Lugansk if no one provides assistance to Ukraine, Russian military affairs specialist Aleksandr Golts says, but he argues that Moscow “does not have the resources” it would need for “a full-scale occupation” of these and other Ukrainian regions. In an interview […]
Staunton, August 29 – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlights a reality many do not want to talk about: Vladimir Putin failed to be able to deal with Ukraine “via softer measures” because of the steadfastness and resistance of the Ukrainians. Putin was consequently forced to send in regular Russian army units, according to Andrei Zubov. […]
Staunton, August 27 – Vladimir Putin’s April 2013 call for the creation of a single school history textbook lest variations lead to “the violation of the humanitarian space of our multi-national nation” has sparked objections from Russian nationalists and the Russian Orthodox Church who say it downplays the Russianness of the state and from non-Russians […]
Staunton, August 19 – An increasing number of Russians, horrified by what Vladimir Putin is doing and convinced that reforming his regime is impossible, are beginning to think about what will happen “after Putin.” In many cases these reflections are disturbing in the short term but provide a source of optimism over the longer haul. […]
Staunton, August 11 – Not only has the Russian government reduced the number of hospital beds available to the Russian people and increased the amount they have to spend on health care, but it has failed to live up to its promises to pay medical personnel more, leaving ever more hospitals without staffs and transforming […]
Staunton, August 7 – During the Cold War, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists rated the level of danger of a nuclear war in terms of the number of minutes the clock was running before midnight. Now, Russian historian Yuri Feltshtinsky has told a Polish newspaper that Vladimir Putin has set the world’s clock back […]
Staunton, July 22 – In a commentary titled “Forewarned and Armed,” Ilya Milshtein argues that tragically “there are no particular reasons to hope that Putin will change his approach” in Ukraine. Instead, the Moscow analyst says, he will proceed in ways that reflect his beliefs in his own exceptionalism and in his ability to intimidate […]
Staunton, July 20 – In his almost 15 years in power, Vladimir Putin has “never admitted a single error” and “never made a single step backward” even when it would have been tactically or strategically to his benefit to do so, Arkady Babchenko says, and consequently, it is unlikely that he will do so in […]
Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast. Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs. View Ukraine: April, 2014 in a larger map For links to individual updates click on the timestamps. Below […]
The evidence that sanctions change a state’s policies is slim. Actually it’s very slim. Economic sanctions taken by themselves have rarely produced the outcomes with which they were designed to produce. The main reason is that the global economy is so diverse, so spread out, that it is almost impossible to create an overarching and […]
