Staunton, April 8 – The United States and the West must put in place an updated version of the non-recognition policy they applied to the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to underscore our outrage at the use of Russian brute force in Ukraine to annex part or all of a neighboring state and […]
Window on Eurasia
West Fears Not the Enemy It Faces But That It Will Have Any Enemies At All, Says Besançon
Staunton, April 7 The West has not responded to Russian aggression in Ukraine because the West has lived without an enemy for some years and thus fears having an enemy even when Russia or another country acts like one, according to the French historian Alan Besançon. In an interview with a Polish weekly on Friday, […]
Fall Off in Anti-Caucasian Stories Not Only Ukraine Focus but Shift in Kremlin’s Plans, Says Kurbanov
Staunton, April 7 One of the consequences of the propaganda campaign against Kyiv that has accompanied Vladimir Putin’s Anschluss of Crimea and moves elsewhere in Ukraine is that it has displaced the anti-Caucasus theme in the Russian media that had so animated Russians until very recently, according to Ruslan Kurbanov. On the one hand, this […]
Putin’s Man Loses to Candidate of United Opposition in Russia’s Third Largest City
Staunton, April 7 In yet another indication that public support for Vladimir Putin is not as deep as many think and that he might not win re-election in a free and fair vote, his United Russia Party candidate for mayor of Novosibirsk lost to an opposition figure when, as has seldom been the case, the […]
Moscow Must Recognize It Has Lost Baltic Countries At Least for Now, Regnum Editor Says
Staunton, April 7 In the wake of the Crimean crisis, a senior editor of Russia’s Regnum news agency says, the three Baltic countries have become even more geopolitically significant than they were for both Russia and the West, but because of its own policy failures, Russia has lost any significant influence in Estonia, Latvia, and […]
Putin’s Only Option in Ukraine Is To Use Force, Illarionov Says
Staunton, April 7 The only option Vladimir Putin has if he is to advance his policies in Ukraine is to use force because the majority of Ukrainians in every region of that country do not support him, do not believe what he says, and do not want what he wants, according to Russian economist Andrey […]
Sources of Russia’s ‘Eternal Return’ to Past Patterns Examined by Moscow Sociologists
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 […]
‘Russianness’ is a ‘Synthetic Category,’ Moscow Ethnographer Says
Staunton, April 6 – “Russianness” is a “synthetic category,” one in which the father of a family can be Mordvin, the mother a German, and the children ethnic Russians, a reflection of the floating quality of identity in that country, government policies, and personal choices, according to a leading Moscow ethnographer. In an interview with […]
Dugin Says an Azerbaijan Hostile to Russia Will ‘Instantly Cease to Exist’
Staunton, April 6 – Aleksandr Dugin, who appears to be increasingly influential in Kremlin circles, says that Moscow views Baku’s UN vote on Ukraine a “an unfriendly act,” that “the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is in Moscow’s hands,” and that “an Azerbaijan hostile to Russia will instantly cease its existence.” Dugin, who describes himself as […]
Russian Occupation Puts Crimea’s Environment at Risk, Bellona Says
Staunton, April 5 – Moscow’s occupation and annexation has already had many consequences, but one that is extremely important but that has not attracted much attention is the extent to which Crimea’s “transfer” from Ukraine to the Russian Federation threatens the fragile environment of the peninsula. That is because, as Andrey Ozharovsky of the environmental […]