Tag: Vostok

‘Managed Spring’: How Moscow Parted Easily with the ‘Novorossiya’ Leaders

December 9, 2014

Novaya Gazeta’s correspondent Pavel Kanygin, among the best chroniclers of the Russian-backed separatist leaders in the Donbass, published a good round up on December 8 on the fate of the Russian-backed separatists, titled “Managed Spring,” in a reference to the concept of the “managed democracy” of President Vladimir Putin. He covers Colonel Igor Strelkov (Girkin), […]

Moscow to Draft Chechens This Fall and Crimean Residents in the Spring

October 1, 2014

Staunton, September 30 – The Russian general staff has announced that it will draft young men from Chechnya this fall for the first time in 20 years and will begin drafting that cohort from occupied Crimea and Sevastopol next spring, an indication of just how hard Moscow is having to work to compensate for demographic […]

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Stalemate or Forced Stagnation in Ukraine

June 26, 2014

As the world’s focus has suddenly shifted to the spiraling abyss that is the Levant in the Middle East, the situation in the Ukraine continues down its slide towards civil war, where progress by Kiev is met just as quickly with setback. Things were starting to look up for Ukraine, they had just elected a […]

Russia This Week: Here Comes the Kremlin’s Troll Army (2-7 June)

June 6, 2014

Updated Daily. Building on years of Russian journalists’ reporting, Western media are now covering the Kremlin’s paid troll army, citing forums moderators’ experience, leaked documents, and local infiltrators, and uncovering how “web brigades” have been skewing public debate on Ukraine. Authorities are rounding up more suspects in the Bolotnaya Square demonstration case even two years […]