A classified U.S. intelligence assessment gives a high likelihood of Russia’s invading eastern Ukraine, as Russia amasses approximately 30,000 troops on the border. 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 […]
Staunton, March 26 – Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea has not only opened a new divide between Moscow and the West. It has re-ordered relations among the former Soviet republics and that in turn has raised questions about the way such changes will affect the future of many unresolved conflicts there. In an article for Vestnik […]
Staunton, March 25 – Members of Protestant Christian denominations are playing a major role in the new Ukrainian government, from acting president Aleksandr Turchinov, who is a Baptist, on down, a development that these denominations are celebrating but that some Russians see a threat to what they call “the Russian world.” Ukraine sits astride cultural […]
Staunton, March 24 – Vladimir Putin’s transformation of Russia into a totalitarian, militarist and chauvinist state mean that the Kazan Tatars can see no future for themselves in that country as long as he is its president and is carrying out such policies, according to a declaration of the Millli Mejlis of the Kazan Tatar […]
Staunton, March 24 – Vladimir Putin may have moved against Ukraine because the Russian military is dependent on Ukraine’s military industry if the Kremlin leader is to achieve his plans to launch a broader world war, a conclusion that if true both suggests the directions of Putin’s next moves and the best ways in which […]
Staunton, March 22 — Since World War II, Western governments have often imposed sanctions to show their displeasure about this or that action, but such sanctions “never were effective” in returning the world to “the status quo ante.” Instead, they highlighted the lack of accord within the West and were even used by powers like […]
Russians continue to protest the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, as tens of thousands turned out to protest the rigged referendum and forcible annexation of Crimea this past weekend. (Go here for last week’s chronicle.) The defendants in the Bolotnaya Case remain on trial. Some of those who protested during the Sochi Olympics last month, such […]
The deadline for the withdrawal of Ukrainian soldiers from Crimea is passing, and the interim government has signed an agreement with the European Union, an agreement ripe with symbolism as this fulfills the wishes of the protesters that started this revolution in the first place. Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and […]
Staunton, March 21 – Yana Amelina, a well-connected Russian analyst, says that Moscow’s annexation of Crimea is “a precedent for South Ossetia and the entire post-Soviet space,” the most expansive Russian interpretation yet of what Putin intends and an indication that the breakaway republic in Georgia is now in the Kremlin’s crosshairs. In two articles […]
Staunton, March 21 – Despite the patriotic fervor in Russia, much of it state-sponsored and likely to dissipate quickly, over the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, many Russians including those who identify themselves as nationalists and patriots are appalled by what Vladimir Putin has done because they already see clearly the damages arising from his policy. […]
