Staunton, July 11 – In order to boost the birthrate, the Russian government would like to make the three-child family the norm, but at present, only eight percent of Russians are parents of three or more children, and they are older, poorer, more rural and more likely to be related to Russian Orthodox priests than […]
Staunton, July 3 – “Ukraine is not simply a country,” New Region news agency chief Aleksandr Shchetilin says, “it is precisely Rus, where all Slavic and all human values have not been forgotten” and thus a magnet for all Slavs who have been horrified by the direction that Russia has taken both as a society […]
Staunton, May 23 – A suggestion by Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov that “federal districts should not necessarily coincide with the borders of Russian regions” appears to be gaining traction in Moscow, the latest in a long line of proposals dating at least to Khrushchev’s time to weaken Russia’s oblasts, krays, and republics. According to Prokhorov, […]
Staunton, May 13 – Vladimir Putin’s decision to name an Interior Ministry general as his plenipotentiary representative to the North Caucasus came as no surprise given that that federal district is far from pacified, but his choice of an army general for that position in Siberia raises some broader questions about the Russian president’s current […]
Staunton, April 25 – Vladimir Putin’s promotion of the idea that Moscow must preserve “the Russian world” has already led to the transformation of his country into something very different than it was before, but the shakiness of its three main foundations is such that it is unlikely to survive for very long, according to […]
Staunton, April 24 – In a comment that many non-Russians in the Russian Federation are certain to see as a threat to the existence of their groups and some Russians may view as a danger to Russian-ness as well, Vladimir Putin said yesterday that “it is not so important what is written in the ‘nationality’ […]
Staunton, April 15 – That Russia’s Anschluss of Crimea has re-ordered the international landscape is now common ground as countries around the world recalibrate their foreign policies in the face of what appears to be a fait accompli. But this annexation is also having a dizzying impact on the Russian Federation’s own nationalities. Indeed, in […]
Staunton, April 6 – Ten days ago, the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences hosted a symposium on “Russia’s Paths: The New Old Order – an Eternal Return,” a subject this institution has examined before but one that, according to a report published at the end of last week, has acquired new importance. The […]
Staunton, April 5 – The constant invocation by Russian officials of the right of peoples to self-determination in the support of the Kremlin’s policy on Crimea is “inspiring Russian regionalists to call for the self-administration of their territories” and is being regularly invoked by them as “a precedent.” As a result, Ulyana Ivanova writes on […]
Staunton, March 28 – The Russian Federation currently has enough forces on the border of Ukraine to seize the southeastern portions of that country, but because it will face a partisan war after it defeats the out-manned Ukrainian military, the Russian forces currently available are insufficient to hold that region, according to Rashit Akhmetov. In […]
